[Q&A] Can Punching Card Records be Used as Evidence in Litigation?
2024. 3. 12
[Q&A] Can Punching Card Records be Used as Evidence in Litigation?
As a corporate law firm, we are used to answering many questions from our clients about their business in China. In this series of Q&A articles, we will discuss some of the topics that our clients have shown interest in.
Question: Can punching card records (electronic data) be used as evidence in litigation?
Answer: Yes, but the records must be checked against the original attendance file with the employee’s confirmation.
According to Article 66 of the Civil Procedure Law in China, electronic data is one of the legal forms of evidence. The punching card records of WeCom record the attendance, vacation and other relevant information of employees. These records can be used as evidence in case of labor disputes.
It should be noted that electronic data can be easily altered. Therefore, in a lawsuit, the court will request the original carrier of the attendance file for comparison and confirmation. Article 15 of the Several Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Evidence in Civil Procedures clearly stipulates that if a party submits any electronic data as evidence, the original attendance file should be provided. Therefore, in case of a dispute, if the employee holds objections to the electronic data exported from WeCom, DingTalk and other software and saved by the company, and the company is unable to make a comparison through the original carrier of the attendance file, then the company may bear consequences of adverse evidence.
According to the information currently available to us, some software presently has a limitation on the storage period of data (for example, the standard version of DingTalk can only store data for 180 days). In such cases, besides upgrading the system and obtaining a longer storage period, some alternative approaches could be considered. For example, exporting data from the system regularly and making sure employees confirm it by signature or by email, or that employees confirm the attendance and overtime when signing the salary slip, on a monthly basis. In addition, companies should also consider the relevant laws and set a reasonable storage period when they store this data.
Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions that you have about this topic!
