1. The personal information we use
- 1.1 Information we collect directly from you
- 1.2 Information we collect from other sources
- 1.3 Special categories of personal data
2. How we use your personal information and the basis on which we use it
3. Your rights over your personal information
4. Automated decisions about you
5. Information sharing
6. Information security and storage
7. International data transfer
8. Contact us
9. Changes to the policy
This privacy notice describes how China Telecom Global Limited, any of its affiliate or subsidiary or other China Telecom group entities ('China Telecom', 'we', 'us') collects and processes personal information about you, how we use and protect this information, and your rights in relation to this information.
1. Personal information we use
This privacy notice applies to all personal information we collect or process about you in relation to your employment. 'Personal information' is information, or a combination of pieces of information, that could identify you.
We may be required as a consequence of our relationship with you as your employer, or by law, to collect certain personal information about you. Failure to provide this information may prevent or delay the fulfilment of these obligations.
We will inform you at the time your information is collected whether certain information is compulsory and the consequences of the failure to provide such information.
We will endeavour to update personnel files on a regular basis. It is your responsibility to ensure that any changes in personal details are communicated in writing to us immediately, or as soon after the change as is practicable, and to inform your next of kin (or whoever you give as an emergency contact) that their details may be held on a personnel file.
1.1 Information we collect directly from you or obtain throughout your employment
The categories of information that we collect directly from you are:
- (a) personal details (e.g. name, date of birth)
- (b) contact details (e.g. phone number, email address, postal address or mobile number)
- (c) educational details (e.g. educational history, qualifications, certifications, skills)
- (d) employment information (e.g. bank account details, payroll information, tax information, National insurance information, details of grade and job duties, references obtained during recruitment, CV, performance information)
- (e) citizenship or immigration information
- (f) information on performance and career development
- (g) absence records including holiday records and self-certification forms
- (h) training records
- (i) details of terms of employment and information about any disciplinary investigations and proceedings
- (j) correspondence you had with us and other information you have given us
1.2 Information we collect from other sources
The categories of information that we collect about you from other sources are:
- (a) background check information (including criminal records) from employment screening agencies or publicly available registers (as allowed by law), or references obtained during recruitment
- (b) publicly available professional profiles on websites or social media (e.g. LinkedIn)
- (c) health information or claims information from external service providers such as insurance companies or other companies that help administer our employee benefits
- (d) information about your performance or conduct that we receive from other employees, clients or service providers you work with who may provide feedback about you for performance reviews
1.3 Special categories of personal data
We may also collect, in the event that it is necessary, sensitive information (also known as special category information) about you as permitted or required by law, such as:
- (a) information about race, ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation for diversity monitoring purposes
- (b) physical and mental health information or disability information to provide occupational health support and to make reasonable adjustments to assist you at work and to deliver sick pay or other benefits
Where China Telecom processes such sensitive personal information, we will usually do so on the basis that it is necessary for reasons of carrying out obligations in the field of employment law or to establish, exercise or defend any legal claims. In any case, China Telecom will process this data in accordance with applicable laws.
2. How we use your personal information and the basis on which we use it
We use your personal information to:
- (a) carry out and support human resources administration including recruitment, employee vetting, performance evaluation, promotions, training, payroll administration, pension and insurance, IT team, compliance, audit and accounting or other benefit administration, reporting and management
- (b) conduct investigations and resolve employee disciplinary or grievance issues issues
- (c) comply with legal obligations to which we are subject (such as compliance with our health and safety and occupational health obligations) and cooperate with regulators and law enforcement bodies (for example to make disclosures to tax authorities if required by law)
- (d) deal with your enquiries and requests
- (e) ensure we can provide you with reasonable adjustments required for you due to disabilities or any other special condition
We must have a legal basis to process your personal information. In most cases the legal basis will be one of the following:
- (a) to fulfil our contractual obligations to you in connection with your employment contract with us
- (b) to comply with our legal obligations, for example obtaining proof of your identity to enable us to meet our anti-money laundering obligations, or obtaining proof of your right to work status to enable us to meet relevant obligations
- (c) to comply with our legal obligations to you, for example health and safety obligations that we must comply with as your employer or to a third party (e.g. the taxation authorities)
- (d) to meet our legitimate interests, for example to manage our employees effectively, to protect us against theft or other crime or to provide you with services such as HR or IT services. When we process personal information to meet our legitimate interests, we put in place robust safeguards to ensure that your privacy is protected and to ensure that our legitimate interests are not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms. For more information about the balancing test that we carry out to process your personal information to meet our legitimate interests, please contact us at the details below
- (e) to protect your or another person's vital interests, for example by providing your health information to a doctor in a medical emergency.
We may obtain your explicit consent to collect and use certain types of personal information when we are required to do so by law (for example, when we process some categories of sensitive personal information). If we ask for your consent to process your personal information, you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the details at the end of this privacy notice.
3. Your rights over your personal information
You have certain rights regarding your personal information, subject to local law. These include the following rights to:
- • access your personal information
- • rectify the information we hold about you
- • erase your personal information
- • restrict our use of your personal information
- • object to our use of your personal information
- • receive your personal information in a usable electronic format and transmit it to a third party (right to data portability)
- • withdraw your consent to any processing based on consent at any time; and
- • lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe that we have not been able to assist with your complaint or concern
If you would like to discuss or exercise such rights, please contact us at the details listed below.
We encourage you to contact us to update or correct your information if it changes or if the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate.
We will contact you if we need additional information from you in order to honour your requests.
4. Automated decisions about you
We may process your personal information by automatic means and without human intervention to make decisions or conduct 'profiling' about you. This involves using software that is able to evaluate your personal aspects and predict risks or outcomes. We carry out this automatic processing to ensure that we treat all employees fairly when assessing your eligibility for a role, promotion or bonus. The significance of our actions in this connection is that depending upon the outcome of the processing you may not be eligible for a particular role, promotion, bonus. We base our decisions on criteria explained at the time that you apply for a particular role or promotion.
We will only make these kinds of automated decisions about you where:
- • such decisions are necessary for entering into or performing a contract of employment with you.
- • such decisions are required or authorised by law, for example for fraud prevention purposes
- • you give your consent to us carrying out automated decision-making.
If you require further information about automated decision-making, you want to object to our use of automated decision-making, or request an automated decision to be reviewed by a human being please contact us at the details below and we will explain to you what your rights are in relation to the processing in question.]
5. Information sharing
We may share your personal information with third parties under the following circumstances:
- • Service providers and business partners. We may share your personal information with our service providers and business partners that perform business operations for us. For example, we partner with other companies for payroll administration, to provide insurance or other benefits, expenses and other compensation services, for IT hosting and maintenance, to analyse information to improve performance or for external advices provided by law firms or accountants.
- • We work closely with other businesses and companies that fall under the China Telecom group. We may share your employment information with other China Telecom group entities for human resource management and internal reporting purposes. A list of businesses falling within the China Telecom group can be found here: https://www.chinatelecomglobal.com/production/index.
- • Any law enforcement agency, court, regulator, government authority or other third party. We may share your personal information with these parties where we believe this is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or otherwise to protect our rights or the rights of any third party.
- • Asset purchasers. We may share your personal information with any third party that purchases, or to which we transfer, all or substantially all of our assets and business. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to try to ensure that the entity to which we transfer your personal information uses it in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy.
Because we operate as part of a global business, the recipients referred to above may be located outside the jurisdiction in which you are located. See the section on "International Data Transfer" below for more information.
Other than set out above, no personal information will be released to a third party without your express authorisation. If you require us to release personal information for a mortgage or any other credit application or reference (either during or after your employment has ended) you must request this in writing to Human Resources.
6. Information security and storage
We implement technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk to the personal information we process. These measures are aimed at ensuring the on-going integrity and confidentiality of personal information and preventing your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties on a need to know basis only. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We evaluate these measures on a regular basis to ensure the security of the processing.
We will keep your personal information for as long as you remain employed with us. Once our relationship with you has come to an end, we will retain your personal information for a period of time that enables us to:
- • Provide you with any continuing benefits such as pension or insurance
- • Maintain business records for analysis and/or audit purposes
- • Comply with record retention requirements under the law
- • Defend or bring any existing or potential legal claims
- • Deal with any queries or complaints you may have.
We will delete your personal information when it is no longer required for these purposes. If there is any information that we are unable, for technical reasons, to delete entirely from our systems, we will put in place appropriate measures to prevent any further processing or use of the data.
7. International data transfer
Your personal information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in China and other countries that are not regarded as ensuring an adequate level of protection for personal information under European Union law.
We have put in place appropriate safeguards (such as contractual commitments) in accordance with applicable legal requirements to ensure that your data is adequately protected. For more information on the appropriate safeguards in place, please contact us at the details below.
8. Contact us
China Telecom is the controller responsible for the personal information we collect and process about you. If you require access to or rectification of your personal information please contact our Human Resources team.
If you have any other questions or concerns regarding the way in which your personal information has been used, please contact our Human Resources team.
9. Changes to the policy
You may request a copy of this privacy notice from us using the contact details set out above. We may modify or update this privacy notice from time to time.
If we change this privacy notice, we will notify you of the changes. Where changes to this privacy notice will have a fundamental impact on the nature of the processing or otherwise have a substantial impact on you, we will give you sufficient advance notice so that you have the opportunity to exercise your rights (e.g. to object to the processing).
DATE: 29 JUNE 2018