WoolTech Marketplace Conduct Rules
1. Purpose
These WoolTech Marketplace Conduct Rules explain the standards of conduct expected when farmers, contractors and workers use the WoolTech Platform and Services to post jobs, request or provide quotes, manage crews, report work, maintain records, communicate, receive notifications, use payment or marketplace features, or otherwise interact through WoolTech.
These rules are intended to support a fair, safe, transparent and professional Australian wool-industry marketplace. They should be read together with the WoolTech Terms of Service and any other WoolTech policies, guidelines or notices that apply to the Platform or Services. If there is any inconsistency between these rules and the Terms of Service, the Terms of Service prevail.
2. About WoolTech
Wool Technology PTY LTD (ACN 679 334 331, ABN 23 679 334 331) trades as Wool.Tech, WoolTech and wool.tech. In these rules, “WoolTech” means Wool Technology PTY LTD and its related trading names.
The “Platform” means the WoolTech websites, including wool.tech, marketplace.wool.tech, and any related online, mobile, account, job posting, quote, crew management, work reporting, records, notification, payment, marketplace or support services provided by WoolTech.
The “Services” means the services made available through the Platform from time to time.
3. Key Marketplace Roles
For the purposes of these rules:
3.1 “farmer” means a person or organisation using the Platform to seek, arrange, receive or manage shearing, wool handling or related wool-industry services, including by posting a job or reviewing a quote.
3.2 “contractor” means a person or organisation using the Platform to offer, quote for, arrange, manage or provide shearing, wool handling or related wool-industry services, including by managing crews or submitting work reports.
3.3 “worker” means an individual who performs, records, supports or is allocated to work in connection with a job, including shearers, wool handlers, shed staff or other wool-industry workers.
3.4 “job” means a work opportunity, booking, engagement, task, shift, project, shearing run or related work arrangement posted, managed, recorded or communicated through the Platform.
3.5 “quote” means pricing, availability, scope, timing or other proposed terms submitted or exchanged through the Platform in relation to a job.
3.6 “work report” means a report, record, entry, update, timesheet, tally, attendance record, completion note, job status update or related information submitted or stored through the Platform in relation to work performed or arranged.
4. Who Must Follow These Rules
These rules apply to all users of the Platform and Services, including farmers, contractors, workers, account administrators and any person acting on behalf of a business, farm, contracting team or crew.
If you use the Platform on behalf of another person or organisation, you are responsible for ensuring that your use of the Platform complies with these rules and the Terms of Service.
5. General Standard of Conduct
Users must act honestly, fairly, professionally and respectfully when using the Platform and Services.
Users must not use the Platform or Services to mislead others, manipulate marketplace activity, create unsafe working pressure, avoid agreed obligations, misuse confidential information, interfere with another user’s business, or engage in conduct that may harm WoolTech, the Platform, other users or the reputation of the Australian wool industry.
6. Honesty and Accuracy
Users must provide information that is true, accurate, current and not misleading.
This includes information in account profiles, job posts, quotes, crew details, work reports, availability, pricing, location details, contact information, payment details, qualifications, experience, references, ratings, reviews and any communications sent through or in connection with the Platform.
Farmers must take reasonable care to ensure job details are accurate, including location, expected dates, stock numbers where relevant, facilities, access, accommodation if applicable, known safety issues, required skills and any relevant operational requirements.
Contractors must take reasonable care to ensure quotes, availability, crew details, rates, inclusions, exclusions, timing and capacity are accurate and not misleading.
Workers must take reasonable care to ensure work reports, attendance, availability, qualifications, experience and other work-related information they provide are accurate and not misleading.
7. Respectful Communication
Users must communicate respectfully and professionally with other users, WoolTech and any support or contact channels associated with the Platform.
Users must not threaten, abuse, intimidate, bully, harass, shame, stalk, impersonate or deliberately embarrass another person. Users must not use aggressive, obscene, degrading or offensive language in connection with the Platform or Services.
WoolTech encourages users to keep communications clear, practical and work-related, particularly when discussing job requirements, quotes, crew arrangements, changes, delays, work reports, payment matters or disputes.
8. No Harassment, Discrimination or Victimisation
Users must not use the Platform or Services to engage in harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, vilification, victimisation or other unlawful or harmful conduct.
Users must not treat another person unfairly because of attributes protected by applicable law, which may include age, disability, race, colour, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, marital or relationship status, family or carer responsibilities, religion, political opinion, union or industrial activity, or other protected characteristics.
Users must not request, encourage or require WoolTech, a farmer, contractor or worker to participate in discriminatory or unlawful conduct.
9. Safety and No Unsafe Pressure
Users must not use the Platform or Services to pressure another person to work unsafely, ignore hazards, bypass safety procedures, conceal incidents, work excessive or unlawful hours, perform work they are not competent or authorised to perform, or accept unsafe conditions.
Farmers, contractors and workers remain responsible for understanding and complying with their own work health and safety duties, employment or engagement obligations, industry requirements and applicable laws.
Farmers should disclose known site, access, livestock, facility, weather, accommodation or operational risks that may reasonably affect a job.
Contractors should manage crew arrangements responsibly and should not allocate workers to tasks without appropriate consideration of skill, fitness, safety, fatigue, supervision and lawful work arrangements.
Workers should raise genuine safety concerns promptly with the appropriate farmer, contractor, supervisor or support/contact channel, and should not knowingly submit false safety, work or incident information.
Nothing in these rules limits any right or obligation a person may have under applicable work health and safety, employment, contractor, anti-discrimination or other laws.
10. Jobs, Quotes and Commitments
Users should only post, quote for, accept, allocate or confirm jobs where they have a genuine intention and reasonable ability to proceed.
Users must not submit fake jobs, fake quotes, sham work reports, misleading expressions of interest, artificial marketplace activity or information designed to manipulate availability, pricing, ratings, search visibility or user decisions.
Users should communicate material changes as soon as reasonably practicable, including changes to timing, availability, job scope, crew capacity, site conditions, pricing assumptions or completion status.
Any agreement between farmers, contractors and workers is subject to the applicable terms agreed between those parties and the WoolTech Terms of Service. WoolTech does not guarantee that a job, quote, user, crew member, worker, farmer, contractor, payment or work outcome will meet another user’s expectations unless expressly stated in the Terms of Service or another written WoolTech policy.
11. Work Reports and Records
Work reports and records submitted through the Platform must be accurate and made in good faith.
Users must not falsify, backdate, inflate, suppress, alter or misuse work reports, tallies, attendance records, completion records, incident information, crew records, payment-related records or other operational records.
Where a user believes a work report or record is incorrect, the user should raise the issue promptly through the relevant Platform feature, the relevant farmer, contractor or worker, or [email protected] or the support/contact channels made available on the Platform or Services.
12. Confidentiality and Privacy
Users may receive or access information about farms, businesses, contractors, workers, jobs, quotes, pricing, records, locations, contact details, operational arrangements, payment details, performance, reviews, communications or other confidential or personal information through the Platform.
Users must handle that information lawfully, carefully and only for proper work-related purposes connected with their use of the Platform and Services.
Users must not copy, scrape, sell, publish, misuse, disclose or share another user’s confidential, business or personal information except where authorised, required for the relevant job or work arrangement, permitted by the Terms of Service or other WoolTech policies, or required by law.
Users should review the WoolTech privacy-related policies and notices for more information about how WoolTech handles personal information.
13. Off-Platform Arrangements and Circumvention
Users must not use the Platform or Services to improperly avoid fees, processes, protections, records, payment arrangements, reporting requirements or other obligations that apply under the Terms of Service or any applicable WoolTech policy.
Where WoolTech enables marketplace, booking, payment, quote, job management, work reporting or communication features, users must not deliberately move activity off-platform for the purpose of misleading WoolTech, avoiding applicable charges, concealing marketplace activity, manipulating records, avoiding safety or compliance processes, or depriving another user of agreed protections or records.
These rules do not prevent users from having legitimate business relationships outside WoolTech. However, users remain responsible for complying with the Terms of Service and any applicable WoolTech policy when their conduct relates to a job, quote, work report, payment, record, communication or marketplace activity initiated, managed or recorded through the Platform.
14. Payments and Commercial Dealings
If payment or marketplace features are available, users must use them honestly and in accordance with the Terms of Service and any applicable payment terms, fee disclosures, invoice requirements or third-party payment provider terms.
Users must not use the Platform to facilitate fraud, money laundering, false invoicing, unauthorised charges, payment diversion, chargeback abuse, fee avoidance, wage underpayment, sham contracting or other unlawful or improper payment conduct.
Commercial terms between farmers, contractors and workers should be clear, lawful and documented appropriately. WoolTech is not responsible for tax, employment, superannuation, insurance, payroll, award, enterprise agreement or contractor classification obligations unless expressly stated in the Terms of Service or required by law.
15. Reviews, Ratings and Feedback
If reviews, ratings or feedback features are enabled, users must use them honestly, fairly and based on genuine experience.
Users must not post fake reviews, retaliatory reviews, discriminatory comments, confidential information, personal attacks, threats, irrelevant material or content intended to manipulate another user’s reputation or marketplace visibility.
Users must not offer or accept undisclosed incentives in exchange for positive reviews or ratings, or pressure another user to remove, change or submit a review in a misleading way.
WoolTech may moderate, remove, restrict or decline to publish reviews, ratings or feedback where permitted by the Terms of Service, these rules or applicable law.
16. Disputes Between Users
Farmers, contractors and workers should try to resolve genuine disputes promptly, respectfully and in good faith.
Disputes may involve job scope, timing, quality, attendance, crew arrangements, work reports, payment, cancellation, site conditions, communications, reviews or other marketplace activity.
Users should keep relevant records, including job details, quotes, messages, work reports, photographs where lawful and appropriate, invoices, payment records and other documents that may help resolve the issue.
WoolTech may provide Platform tools, support/contact channels or administrative assistance for certain disputes, but WoolTech is not required to act as a mediator, arbitrator, employer, industrial adviser, legal adviser, insurer, debt collector or decision-maker for user-to-user disputes unless expressly stated in the Terms of Service or required by law.
17. Prohibited Conduct
Users must not:
17.1 use the Platform or Services for unlawful, fraudulent, misleading, harmful or abusive conduct;
17.2 create, post or submit false, deceptive or manipulated jobs, quotes, work reports, reviews, records or account information;
17.3 harass, threaten, discriminate against, bully, intimidate or victimise another person;
17.4 pressure another person to work unsafely, conceal hazards, ignore incidents or breach applicable laws;
17.5 misuse personal, confidential, farm, business, worker, contractor or payment information;
17.6 attempt to avoid applicable WoolTech fees, records, payment processes, marketplace protections or Platform rules through improper circumvention;
17.7 interfere with, scrape, reverse engineer, overload, disrupt or misuse the Platform or Services;
17.8 impersonate another person or organisation, or misrepresent authority to act for a farmer, contractor, worker, business, crew or farm;
17.9 upload or transmit malicious code, spam, scams, phishing material or unauthorised advertising;
17.10 retaliate against a user for raising a safety, payment, discrimination, harassment, privacy, conduct or compliance concern in good faith; or
17.11 encourage, assist or permit another person to do anything that would breach these rules, the Terms of Service or applicable law.
18. Reporting Concerns
Users may report concerns about conduct, safety, harassment, discrimination, misuse of information, false records, suspected fraud, reviews, payments, marketplace activity or other rule breaches through [email protected] or the support/contact channels made available on the Platform or Services or any reporting feature made available through the Platform.
Reports should include relevant details where possible, such as the job, quote, work report, user, date, communication, record or incident involved. Users should not include unnecessary personal information or confidential information that is not relevant to the concern.
WoolTech may review reports in accordance with the Terms of Service, applicable policies, Platform functionality and legal requirements.
19. Enforcement
WoolTech may take action where it reasonably considers that a user has breached these rules, the Terms of Service, another applicable WoolTech policy or applicable law, or where action is needed to protect users, WoolTech, the Platform, the Services or marketplace integrity.
Depending on the circumstances, action may include warning a user, requesting further information, removing content, moderating reviews, correcting or restricting records, limiting features, pausing or suspending access, terminating an account, withholding or reversing certain Platform actions where permitted, notifying affected users, cooperating with payment providers, or referring matters to appropriate authorities where required or appropriate.
WoolTech may consider the seriousness of the conduct, available evidence, user history, risk to others, legal obligations, marketplace integrity and any response provided by the relevant user.
20. No Legal, Employment or Professional Advice
Information made available through the Platform, Services or these rules is general in nature and does not constitute legal, employment, industrial relations, tax, accounting, safety, insurance or other professional advice.
Farmers, contractors and workers should obtain their own professional advice where needed, particularly for employment status, contractor arrangements, pay, award coverage, superannuation, tax, insurance, workplace safety, privacy, discrimination, debt recovery and contractual obligations.
21. Relationship with the Terms of Service and Other Policies
These rules form part of WoolTech’s marketplace conduct framework and should be read together with the WoolTech Terms of Service and any other applicable WoolTech policies, notices, payment terms, privacy-related documents, community guidelines or feature-specific rules.
WoolTech may update these rules from time to time. Continued use of the Platform or Services after an update may be subject to the updated version, as explained in the Terms of Service or other applicable WoolTech notices.