When going through the recruitment process, you will be asked by your prospective employer for consent so that a police check is conducted on you. It is not something that is required in every situation, but there are several reasons why an employer might want to you to do a police check.
Being a candidate, it is important that you know your rights if the police check online is added to your hurdle of interviews and applications. To ensure that you are well prepared, the following information might be of great help which you will require to know before doing police checks.
What is a police check?
It refers to a summary of the history of any person with the police in Australia. Checks are normally done on the Australian citizens or anyone who might be residing in Australia. It is a service offered by the government for either organizations or individuals for the employment, voluntary work and the licensing that are occupational related or for purposes of registration.
Why is it that the employers require them?
Most employers find the police checks to be quite beneficial in reducing the risks of fraud, theft or other criminal activities which were performed by the new employer. But in industries where the employees happen to work with the elderly, children, or other communities that are vulnerable, police checks tend to be quite important for an organization to be able to rule out having to employ people who in the past committed offenses.
In such cases, where an employer believes that it is relevant to have a criminal record to a certain job, they are required to state it quite clearly during their job ad, in the information that is sent out to the applicants and in the briefs of recruitment to the agencies.
What are your rights?
It is important to be able to know that there are other checks for the police investigation or the purposes of prosecution, no one is permitted to check in another person’s record from the police without having their consent. In other words, releasing a criminal history for purposes of employment can only be done when there is a signed consent of the candidate.
Additionally, if you happen to be asked in an interview if you have a criminal record, as per the human rights commission, you are not required to volunteer out any information, not unless there is a requirement under the legislation that requires you to do so. In such cases, you will be required to disclose your record to whoever is asking for it.
There are several places which you can use online to obtain a police check and thus, check out for one which you think it is legit and registered and fully licensed to do so. Compare the charges and settle for one that is most affordable as per your budget. So whenever you are requested for a police record, all you have to do is to go online and obtain one for yourself.
