Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting Labourteq Solutions (Pty) Ltd (“Labourteq”). We are committed to protecting any personal information you may share with us. This Labourteq Privacy Policy (“the Policy”) sets out how we process personal, including special personal information (“personal information”) on our website, our cloud-based solution and/or when rendering related professional services, as required by the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (“POPIA/the Act”) and any of its regulations. All terms have the meaning subscribed to it in the Act. 

Please read this Policy before submitting any personal information to us. By submitting information, your provide consent to us processing the information as set out in this Policy. 

We implement reasonable technical and operational measures to keep your personal information secure. It is important that you also take all necessary and appropriate steps to protect your personal information and/or that of other relevant stakeholders, for example, by ensuring passwords and access links are kept secure. You indemnify Labourteq and hold it harmless from any loss, damage or injury that may result from your acts or omissions impacting on your own personal information or that of others. 

Who is Labourteq? 

Labourteq is a South African based company whose main offering is a Cloud software solution comprising dynamic workflows to manage employee relations cases in the workplace, secure sensitive information and gain business insights through powerful analytics. It supports constructive, legally compliant and fair engagement between employers as its clients, and their employees.

The solution is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to ensure the highest standard of Cloud security. Data is encrypted and protected with many layers of security. Strict access controls ensure that only the relevant role players for each case have access to the information. We offer different levels of support to deal with queries or challenges that may arise when our clients use the solution. 

In addition, value-added services include training, change management, and professional employee relations support services. 

In this capacity, we may obtain and process our clients’ personal information (typically employers) and/or certain personal information about our clients’ employees, representatives, consultants, and/or other end users who are authorised to use our software or services.  

If you choose not to provide us with your personal information that we legitimately require, we may be unable to provide you with the information or services you may have requested.

If you are an employee or other end user of a Labourteq client, please contact your employer with any questions about how your data is collected and processed and we will assist our client in addressing your queries.

What are the legal grounds for us collecting and processing information? 

We only use personal information in a lawful, transparent, and fair manner. 

Firstly, we do so consistent with your specific revocable consent to utilize cookies to engage advertising and analytics partners to deliver tailored advertising and analysis of our website usage. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by managing your own settings. 

Secondly, when you submit queries, request a demo or ask for a discussion on our cloud-based solution or services, you provide details and we communicate with your express prior consent. 

Thirdly, when we enter into a contract directly with you or your legal entity for our solution or services, we process relevant personal information on the basis of our contract in order to prepare and enter into the contract, as well as to perform and manage our contract (i.e., providing the Labourteq software solution, its features and services to account owners, their users, and those they invite to join cases or meetings as part of employee relations and labour dispute case management, and to manage our client relationship and contract, including billing, compliance with contractual obligations, and related administration). If we do not process your personal information for these purposes, we may not be able to provide you with the Labourteq software solution, its features, and related services.

We process, fourthly, personal information to comply with the legal obligations to which we are subject for the purposes of compliance with laws, regulations, codes of practice, guidelines, or rules applicable to us, and for responses to requests from, and other communications with governmental, judicial, or other regulatory authorities. 

What are your privacy rights?

Your rights specifically include: 

• The right to establish whether Labourteq holds personal information related to you, including the right to request access to that personal information. 
• The right to request, where necessary, that your personal information must be corrected or deleted where Labourteq is no longer authorised to retain the personal information. 
• The right, on reasonable grounds, to object to the processing of your personal information. In such circumstances, Labourteq will give due consideration to the request and the requirements of POPIA and may, subject to any statutory and contractual record keeping requirements, also approve the destruction of your personal information. 
• The right to object to the processing of your personal information for purposes of direct marketing by means of unsolicited electronic communications.  
• The right to submit a complaint to the Information Regulator regarding an alleged infringement of any of the rights protected under POPIA and to institute civil proceedings regarding alleged non-compliance with the protection of your personal information. 
• The right to be notified that your personal information is being collected by Labourteq. 
• The right to be notified in any situation where Labourteq has reasonable grounds to believe that your personal information has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person. 

What types of personal information do we collect and process? 

We receive and process certain types of information when you interact with our website, for example, like many other websites, we store “cookies” and other web-based files to get certain types of information when your web browser accesses our site. We use this, for example, to track first time visitors or responses to our media campaigns. You may change your cookies settings should you so wish at any time.  If you continue without changing your settings, we accept that you consent to receive all cookies on this website. 

For some secure areas on the website, we require you to provide personal information on a voluntary basis, including login credentials or when you request a demo of our software. Personal information may include your name, company name, number of employees, physical address, e-mail address and contact numbers, or login details. 

We may further collect or process the following categories of information when you use or interact with the Labourteq solution or services: 

• Personal and special personal information, including but not limited to company/employer details, the company administrator’s name, contact information, account ID, billing information, employee names and details, user names and details and how they interact with Labourteq’s software, employee relations case management information such as when cases are created, how cases progress and are concluded, labour dispute management information, related e-mail communications, meeting records, calendar invites and participants, profile settings, device information and the like;  
• Records about your communications with Labourteq, including relating to support questions, your account, and other enquiries from you or anyone acting on your behalf;
• Details of transactions you carry out with us;
• Details of contracts you enter into with us;
• Sensitive or special categories of personal information, including images, race, health related information and the like; 

When you provide Labourteq with the personal information of others, such as that of your employees or other service providers, you must take all reasonable steps to inform such third parties that you need to disclose their details to us, identifying us. We will process their personal information in accordance with this Policy and cannot be held responsible, if you do not inform them. 

How do we collect, use and share personal information?

You may provide information to us directly or indirectly. We may also collect personal information from your appointed agent, any regulator or other third party that may hold such information lawfully. 

We generally process your or your organisation’s or your employees’ personal information to:

• Help us manage our business, our relationships and contracts with subscription account owners, including billing, compliance with contractual obligations, and related administration;
• Provide our clients with our Cloud solution, offerings and/or affiliated services as requested or subscribed to;
• Manage subscriptions or relationship and/or complying with you or your organisation’s business related requests;
• Route invitations and messages to recipients when people send invitations and messages using the Labourteq solution;
• Authenticate subscribers’ accounts and/or user profiles and activity, detect, investigate, and prevent malicious conduct, address security threats, and secure the Labourteq solution;
• Provide client and user support, which may include accessing workflows, audio, video, files, and messages, at the direction of the account owner or their users;
• Perform certain administration or other transactions initiated by you;
• Assess and respond to questions, complaints, or reviews of our solution or services and/or communicate changes to our policies and terms of business;
• Send you communications about our solution and/or services, promotions, electronic newsletters, or other notices you requested;
• Detect and prevent fraud or money laundering or act in the general interest of security and/or crime prevention;
• Market, advertise, and promote Labourteq’s solution and services;
• Track the effectiveness of our advertising and marketing campaigns;
• Comply with applicable laws, obey judicial orders, cooperate with law enforcement authorities, or prevent any suspected illegal activities;
• For other everyday business purposes, such as business or software development, market research and website administration;
• Prevent and control of diseases, including COVID-19;
• Investigate and take remedial actions in case of security breaches of our solution;

• Investigate or participate in civil discovery, litigation, or other adversarial legal proceedings, and/or to enforce or investigate potential violations of our terms and conditions or policies. 

Labourteq provides personal information to third parties only with your consent, or to the extent reasonably necessary to respond to your requests and/or meet our legitimate business and legal objectives such as:

• Vendors: Labourteq works with third-party service providers to provide IT support, maintenance, and/or technical infrastructure software development, cloud-based hosting services, payment card/eft processors, and related services. These vendors can access personal information, subject to contractual and technical requirements for protecting personal information and prohibiting them from using personal information for any purpose, other than to provide services to Labourteq or as required by law. We will disclose personal information to these legal entities and/or individuals on a needs basis only. 
• For Legal Reasons: Labourteq may share personal information as needed to: (1) comply with applicable law or respond to, investigate, or participate in valid legal process and proceedings, including from law enforcement or government agencies; (2) enforce or investigate potential violations of its terms of service or policies; (3) detect, prevent, or investigate potential fraud, abuse, or safety and security concerns, including threats to the public; 4) meet our corporate and social responsibility commitments; (5) protect our and our clients’ rights and property; and (6) resolve disputes and enforce agreements. We may also disclose personal information to our auditors, legal advisors, or similar parties. 
• Marketing and Analytics Partners: Labourteq may use third-party marketing and advertising providers to provide statistics and analysis about how people are using our website and/or to provide advertising and marketing, including targeted advertising based on your use of our website. These third-party partners may receive information about your activities on Labourteq’s website through third-party cookies placed on Labourteq’s website. You are free to manage your own cookie settings to avoid such.
• Change of Control: We may share personal information with actual or prospective acquirers, their representatives and other relevant participants in, or during negotiations of, any sale, merger, acquisition, restructuring, or change in control involving all or a portion of Labouteq’s business or assets. We will use reasonable efforts to include contractual provisions that require such parties to treat your personal information consistent with existing legal obligations.

We do not collect or process information about children on purpose, unless parental consent is obtained. Labourteq’s solution and services are not targeted at children. 

Who can see and share personal information when using Labourteq?

An account owner is the organisation or individual that subscribes to become a Labourteq client, normally an employer, who uses our Cloud solution.  Typically, an account owner designates one or more people (called a company administrator) to manage their account and grant privileges to users on the account, typically executives, line managers, human resource business partners and/or employee relations managers. The account owner can create and/or access the profile information for all users on its account.  The account owner and their users can invite others (including guests not on their account) to participate in specific cases, such as investigators or chairpersons of hearings. These parties are equally subject to data protection obligations and must adhere to such. 

Labourteq will not be held responsible if any user illegally or negligently shares information, compromises login details or links sent to them, or act contrary to POPIA. 

Labourteq gives account owners and users controls and features to actively manage employee relations cases in their workplace, which includes workflows, recordings, e-mail messages, or out-of-meeting messages. Depending on their user profiles, users can access employee data relevant to them.  

We use employee information solely for the purposes requested by our clients (i.e., the employer) when using the Labourteq solution or to perform supporting services.  We take reasonable steps to safeguard data against unauthorised access, use, or disclosure.  Our clients should inform their employees that their personal information is collected, stored, and used for employee relations and labour dispute management purposes. 

When supporting users and/or solving their queries when using Labourteq, it may under certain circumstances be necessary at times to log on as the specific user / client (i.e., impersonate the user), which we and/or our IT Service provider will do with their consent and knowledge. 

How do we protect international transfers of personal information? 

Labourteq is based in South-Africa, but information may need to be transferred across borders. We may also, for example, have IT service providers in other geographic locations. By using this site or providing any information, you consent to the transfer of your personal information, legal entity or that of your employees outside your home country and/or across borders. When using our software or services, we also have appropriate contractual clauses in place with our clients intended to support secure data sharing and transfer.  

How long do we retain your information? 

We retain personal information only for as long as required to engage in the uses described, alternatively, in accordance with retention periods as prescribed by applicable laws or for other lawful purposes, such as for legal processes.

What happens in case of security breaches? 

Should it be suspected that personal information has been accessed by an unauthorised party or has been used improperly by an authorised party, then 

• The discovering individual must report the incident immediately to the Labourteq Information Officer.

• Should a password or key be believed to have been compromised, it must be changed immediately.  

• We will then take every reasonable measure to notify all affected parties as well as the Information Regulator of the breach as soon as we become aware of it providing information such as:

• When the breach occurred;

• How the breach occurred, if known;

• What information was breached;

• The measures being taken to remedy the breach and prevent future occurrences.

We will take reasonable context-specific remedial actions, which may include compliance with our own internal IT breach protocols and/or that of our IT business partners or service providers. 

Where a POPIA complaint, infringement or litigation has been finalised, we may also recommend or institute any appropriate administrative, legal and/or disciplinary action to be taken against any employee/person reasonably suspected of being implicated in any non-compliant activity.

How can you contact us?

If you wish to update your personal information, have any questions, have a complaint, or wish to send us comments about this Policy or exercise any rights, e-mail us at hello@labourteq.co.za. You can also contact our Data Protection Officers by sending an email to chantel@labourteq.co.za or laurentia@labourteq.co.za.

Labourteq has a virtual office and e-mail communication must please be used. 

Identify yourself, specifying your relevant subscription details and/or user information and/or other relevant information to enable us to authenticate and respond to your request. Please note that we may request you to provide us with additional information in order to confirm your identity and ensure that you are entitled to access the relevant personal information. We will investigate your query or complaint, and use reasonable efforts to respond to you as soon as possible.

We may decline to process requests that are unreasonably repetitive or systematic, require disproportionate technical effort, or jeopardise the privacy of others. 

If a subscriber to and user of the Labourteq software solution, you may also login to your account or profile and modify your personal information directly, as far as allowed by your user profile.

What if you have a complaint?

Should you believe we have used your personal information contrary to applicable laws, you undertake to first attempt to resolve it with Labourteq directly by contacting its Data Protection Officers, Chantel Heron or Laurentia Truter, by sending an email to chantel@labourteq.co.za or laurentia@labourteq.co.za.

We will engage with you to resolve the matter. 

Should you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator using the following contact details:

Tel: 010 023 5200;

E-mail: inforeg@justice.gov.za. 

How will you know if we amend this Privacy Policy?

We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time.  Any such amendments will come into effect when notice is given of our updated Privacy Policy on our website.  It is your responsibility to check the website often and remain informed of the content hereof.   

In conclusion 

The security and confidentiality of your personal information and that of others matters to us.  That’s why we have adequate technical, administrative, and physical controls in place to protect personal information from unauthorised access, use, and disclosure.  Even so, despite our reasonable efforts, no security is ever perfect or impenetrable and you must be cognisant of this. Please take all reasonable precautions when communicating with us and/or using our solution or services.