Regulations on determining state secrets of trade union organizations in Vietnam from October 1, 2024

Regulations on determining state secrets of trade union organizations in Vietnam from October 1, 2024 (Image from Internet)

On October 1, 2024, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor issued Decision 1818/QD-TLD concerning the Regulation on the Protection of State Secrets of the Vietnam Trade Union Organization.

Regulations on determining state secrets of trade union organizations in Vietnam from October 1, 2024

Article 5 of the Regulation issued with Decision 1818/QD-TLD in 2024 stipulates the determination of state secrets of the Trade Union Organization in Vietnam as follows:

(1) The head of the agency or unit issuing, publishing documents, or creating objects containing state secrets is responsible for determining the state secrets and the confidentiality level of the state secrets.

Authorization to determine state secrets and the confidentiality level of state secrets must be specified in the internal rules for protecting state secrets, the working regulations, or the annual division of labor document of the agency or unit, clearly defining the scope, content, and authorization duration.

- Central Confederation Level

The President of the Central Confederation authorizes the Vice President in charge of fields according to the assigned duties of the Standing Committee of the Presidium.

Department Level: The Head of Department authorizes the Deputy Head (if the department has no Head, delegation goes to a Deputy Head).

- Provincial, City Level, Central Sector Unions, and equivalent, General Corporations Unions under the Central Confederation

The President of the Provincial or City Labor Federation, Central Sector Unions, and equivalent, General Corporations Unions under the Central Confederation may delegate authority to the Vice President of the Provincial, City Labor Federation, or Sector Union.

The delegated deputy is responsible to the principal and under the law, and cannot further delegate to another person.

(2) The determination of state secrets and confidentiality levels must be grounded in the List of State Secrets of the Vietnam Trade Union (Decision 2288/QD-TTg dated December 31, 2020, by the Prime Minister of Vietnam) and based on 35 lists of state secrets in various sectors and fields issued by the Prime Minister of Vietnam.

(3) Procedure for determining state secrets and confidentiality levels

- The drafter, creator of the information on the state secrets list must propose the authorized individual as mentioned in (1) to identify the secret content, confidentiality level, recipients, copies issued, and whether or not copying, reproducing documents, objects containing state secrets is allowed in the Proposal Form, Submission Slip, signed document, or document identifying confidentiality level for objects, venues, speeches, actions, or other forms containing state secrets and are responsible for protecting the content during drafting, creation.

State secret documents must express the recipient, copies issued, name of drafter, permission or prohibition of copying, reproducing in the recipient section of the document. In the case of electronic documents, the drafter must apply the confidentiality mark on the document after the authorized person determines the secret content, confidentiality level; printed electronic documents for issuance must have confidentiality marks according to regulations.

- For documents of repetitive nature such as thematic reports, periodic reports with the same confidentiality level, the authorized person as mentioned in (1) determines the confidentiality level once for that document type.

- Using state secrets from other agencies or organizations requires determining a corresponding confidentiality level.

- If different levels of confidentiality are within the same state secret document or object, the highest level of confidentiality applies.

- On receiving information from the state secrets list but the issuing unit has not determined confidentiality, the recipient must report to the agency or organization head for determination or transfer to the responsible unit for confidentiality determination under authority. Information received must be protected during reception and processing.

(4) Draft documents containing secret content must be managed and protected like official issue documents during drafting and destroyed immediately after creation if retaining is unnecessary.

Drafts containing secret content without the confidentiality decision by the authorized person and without issuance must not have confidentiality marks on drafts. Sending drafts requires accompanying documents requesting the recipient to protect the draft content, ensuring no loss, leaking of secret content.

More details can be found in Decision 1818/QD-TLD, which comes into force in Vietnam from October 1, 2024.

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