“There is no reason to be secretive about it. All the Privacy Act is saying, if you’re going to do this, it doesn’t say it’s prohibited, if you’re going to do it, you need to inform the candidate in advance or as soon as practical afterwards.
“I would just include a notice in your recruitment package of information the candidates get, or even in job advertisements, that complies with Australian Privacy Principle 5.1 which basically says we may do social media checks of information in the public domain and, with your consent, we may contact previous employers that you’ve not listed on your CV.
“If people choose to withdraw from the recruitment process because of that, they can do that. Or if they don’t give their consent, the employer can choose not to progress their application.”
O’Halloran said he was not aware of any prosecution of an employer for doing social media background checks or talking to people not listed on a CV but in theory that could happen.
Importance of thorough reference checks
O’Halloran said as an employment lawyer he had seen “incredibly inappropriate people” hired with fake or exaggerated references.