Workplace Investigations

At the level of criminal procedure in PRC, only the Criminal Procedure Law of PRC provides that pseudonyms may be used in the indictment as a substitute for the disclosure of a witness's personal information, such as name, address, employer and contact information, to protect the personal safety of the witness. However, there are no relevant provisions on whether the identity of the complainant, the witness in civil litigation and the provider of information shall be kept confidential during an investigation.

During the course of an investigation, in order to protect the privacy of relevant personnel and avoid the risk of infringement, the employer usually keeps the identity of the complainant or the provider of investigation information confidential. However, at the civil litigation stage, the witness is unavoidably required to testify in court, and must truthfully identify himself/herself to the court.

There is no specific provision on this in relevant laws and regulations in the PRC. In practice, the employer will usually stipulate the relevant grievance procedure and process in its internal rules and regulations, and provide the employee with the relevant grievance rights in accordance with the grievance regulations. Alternatively, even if there is no provision on grievance procedure and process in their internal rules and regulations, from the perspective of fairness and rationality, we recommend that the employer should review and evaluate the grievance raised by the employee. If it is confirmed that irregularities exist in the investigation, which may directly affect the conclusions of the investigation (e.g. a past conflict between the employee and the investigator or the employee was unfairly treated in the investigation), the employer shall suspend the investigation and resume the investigation after timely resolution of such complaint. If the grievance does not affect the normal conduct of the investigation, the employer can still proceed with the investigation.