A company working on the Shell-owned Queensland Gas Corporation (QGC) project has told job applicants they will not be accepted until they submit to blood tests to check if they are at risk of heart attack, high cholesterol and other conditions.

Key points: The ETU says the company could on-sell the data once it is outside Australia

The ETU says the company could on-sell the data once it is outside Australia Workers were asked to sign waivers allowing their data to be sent offshore

Workers were asked to sign waivers allowing their data to be sent offshore The ETU has called on the Government to improve privacy laws

The recruitment subcontractor, SNC Lavalin, has made potential employees sign a waiver that potentially allowed the company to send their data, medical records and blood samples overseas to countries that do not comply with Australia's privacy laws.

Darren — a worker who does not want to be named — said it was "sinister".

"They're requiring blood samples to be given as well and sort of haven't disclosed what that is for," he said.

"It just seems a little bit sinister to me and especially as they not disclosing as to why and it sort of raised alarm bells … what are our rights?

"To me, a blood test is something that is private between a person and their doctor for health concerns or whatever — I think this a really slippery slope we're going down here if this is allowed to happen."

Electrical Trades Union (ETU) national assistant secretary Michael Wright said he was horrified at these developments.

"This is an unusual, and sort of horrifying, situation that we find ourselves in here," Mr Wright said.

"The ETU hasn't previously come across workers being required to provide blood in order to get a job before.

"It's a trend that we think leads to an opening of Pandora's box — you can just imagine this paves the way for genetic testing, even blacklisting — we think this sets a new low for employment standards in Australia."

Recruitment company SNC Lavalin has ordered tests on candidates' blood to check for health problems. ( Flickr: Phillip Jeffrey )

Waiver forces employees to sign away their rights

SNC Lavalin has ordered tests on candidates' blood to check for health problems.

ABC News has seen documents showing the company ordered tests on candidates blood for "cardiac risk" and "lipid profile", but many employees do not know what else they tested for because it was not disclosed.

In further correspondence, SNC Lavalin told people "not to worry" about the blood tests, but they would not be accepted for a job if they did not do the blood test.

Then there is the waiver forcing employees to sign away their rights under Australian law and agree to their data and personal information being sent offshore, which is the part the ETU is most concerned about.

"The waivers permit the employer to send health data and information offshore to its related body corporates, and then for those related body corporates to do with it what they please," Mr Wright said.

"It's my understanding the waiver is so broad that they could request the actual samples themselves from the pathologist, and then those samples — under the guise of health information — could be sent overseas," Mr Wright said.

The waiver, provided to ABC News, shows that SNC Lavalin has forced people to sign away their rights under Australian privacy laws and allows the company to transfer their data to overseas bodies, that operate outside Australian law.

The wording of the waiver says:

"I understand that a pre-employment medical examination will be required and if successful in obtaining employment, the data will be retained and stored in overseas databases."

The rest of the waiver allows SNC Lavalin to keep personal data, including medical records, and transfer them to other parties overseas who — the ETU says — the company can on-sell that data once it is outside Australia.

SNC Lavalin makes the applicants agree:

"… that SNC Lavalin Australia Pty Ltd is not required to ensure that the Overseas Entities comply with the relevant privacy laws of Australia including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). "This information may be retained in these databases unless I specifically request that it be removed from the database after the termination of my employment with the employer."

And grants SNC Lavalin the right to transfer employees data to so-called clients:

"You also acknowledge that your personal information will be provided by us to our client's and other external personnel for the purposes of our business and you consent to us disclosing and retaining your personal information for this purpose both within Australia and internationally."

SNC Lavalin told people "not to worry" about the blood tests. ( Pexels )

Darren does not trust the waiver either.

"It's kind of a disclaimer really … it does seem a bit strange and a bit clandestine," he said.

He has been working on the Shell Queensland Gas Corporation project for some time and was switching from one contractor to another only because SNC Lavalin took over the contract.

But he said he thought Shell should be responsible.

"We wear Shell uniforms, we drive trucks with 'Shell' on the side of them," Darren said.

"They [SNC Lavalin] are just a pay office — they have no site presence. All communication comes through QGC headquarters."

Is it legal?

The ETU has written to the Federal Government over concerns that current laws do not adequately cover this area.

Mr Wright said a review of the privacy and employment laws must be strengthened.

"This is a worrying trend and one which the minister needs to act, and act quickly, to stamp out," Mr Wright said.

"We are strongly concerned that this sort of lifestyle testing, which is not tailored to assessing a person's risk in the workplace, is now being applied to whether somebody can get a job or not — but on our current advice, it may well be perfectly legal.

"Frankly, our privacy laws were drafted before this became a possibility."

Mr Wright said Australia's privacy laws need to be tailored for these "rising incidents of employers requesting intrusive samples from their workforces".

"There is effectively no regulation for how an employer deals with this internally … or deals with this when they offshore it … let alone a small business which isn't even covered by Australian privacy law to begin with," he said.

In a statement, SNC Lavalin said "in light of these concerns, we are revising the form to provide further information regarding how the SNC-Lavalin Group manages data privacy".

Shell-QGC said in a statement; "we understand the concerns that have been raised regarding SNC-Lavalin's blood test and data privacy practices. The contractor has acknowledged the concern and is addressing the issue".