In late September the Chinese Government announced proposed changes to the Personal Information Protection Law, which may provide an exception for the transfer of HR data.
You Should Care Because: As highlighted in our September newsletter, companies are currently required to meet a November 30 deadline for the submission of a Standard Contract and transfer risk assessment.
HR Policy Global’s Take: While the proposed revision gives multinational employers some hope that the stringent provisions will be relaxed, there is no implementation date provided by the Chinese Government. Opinions vary on the likelihood that the revision will be released prior to the deadline, hence prudence is advised.
The Big Picture: The Chinese Government has released a new document titled “Provisions on Regulating and Promoting Cross-border Data Flow (draft for comments) (the ‘Proposed revisions). The provision specifies that it will not be necessary to conclude the Standard Contract for the transfer of “employee personal information necessary for the purposes of human resource management in accordance with legally established employment regulations and collective contracts”. The document was released in late September and open for comments until October 15th.
What’s Next: Legal commentators have mixed views on the likelihood of the new provision being in place before the November 30th deadline. Some suggest the provisions will be released beforehand given the rushed nature of the consultation period, while others are remaining less committal.
