NCAT rules against exit survey access

By Tim Howard

A community group’s bid to use information from staff exit surveys to get to the bottom of the exodus of staff from Clarence Valley Council has been blocked.

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) has backed council’s call to protect the personal and confidential information of its employees in response to requests received from YambaCAN to release staff exit interviews over a two-year period.

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Council’s Corporate and Community director Alex Moar said NCAT’s findings confirmed that council had struck the right balance between protecting the personal information of its employees and acting in the public interest.

“It is a vital part of our governance framework that we remain committed to transparency and accountability, however we must also abide by the Government Information Public Access Act’s public interest test,” she said.

“Put simply, that means we must make decisions that satisfy the GIPA’s public interest test, and when council applied that test to the staff exit reasons, the public interest consideration against disclosure outweighed those in favour.”

Ms Moar said she had welcomed the opportunity to demonstrate that council’s review and response process to the GIPA request received was appropriate, and that additional information had been provided in line with an Information Privacy Commission (IPC) recommendation.

“We cannot simply release information because it has been requested, and NCAT’s findings demonstrate that council is well placed to review, assess and make public interest legislation-based decisions that protect the rights of past and present staff members,” she said.

The NCAT hearing, on February 28, came about when YambaCAN’s GIPA requests for the exit interviews was refused.

YambaCAN secretary Lynne Cairns said many in the community were concerned the council would be unable to perform its duties with so many staff leaving.

“Ninety staff left council between May 2021 to May 2022 and another 85 left council between May 2022 and May 2023,” Mrs Cairns said.

“To see 175 staff in a total of 500 leave in two years is a huge staff turnover and will be affecting how council fulfils its obligations.”

Ms Cairns said while the NCAT ruling was disappointing, the group would continue to press the council for information about staffing issues.

“We know staff turnover is having an effect,” she said. “When the general manager was asked why the council’s annual report missed its deadline last year, she told the council it was due to lack of experienced staff.”

Lynn Cairns

Ms Cairns said it was important to remember that YambaCAN’s reasons to seek this information were purely to get to the bottom of council’s staffing issues and there was no intent to access personal information.

“Our application for the reasons given by staff for leaving always emphasised that these would be anonymised and we did not want access to any personal information,” she said.

“Our application was made on May 12 2023. YambaCAN was concerned about the number of staff leaving CVC and choosing to work elsewhere.

“Many residents shared their view with YambaCAN that CVC did not have a positive workplace culture.”

She said the decision to appeal to NCAT was the final option for YambaCAN.

Ms Cairns said by June 27 2023 CVC determined to refuse access to any information at all.

YambaCAN requested the Information and Privacy Commission review council’s decision and on  September 8 2023 the IPC advised council that it should make a new decision and advise YambaCAN within 10 working days.

CVC did not notify YambaCAN of any intention to make a further decision.

On the October 8 2023 YambaCAN lodged an appeal with NCAT.

Only after YambaCAN lodged its NCAT appeal did council contact YambaCAN to provide a new decision on October 16 2023.

In the new decision council did provide statistics of the number of staff leaving in the year to May 2023 which was 17.5%, although council publicly reported that figure as being 14% to June 2023 in the council’s resourcing strategy.

Ms Cairns said YambaCAN continued with the NCAT appeal because the council still refused to provide the reasons for the staff leaving council.

She said this was still important information for the public to know.

“Despite the NCAT decision YambaCAN still believe it is in the public interest for the community to know what reasons staff give for leaving our Council,” she said.

But Ms Cairns said it was unlikely YambaCAN would appeal the matter, but this would be something for the group to decide at its next meeting.

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