The three federal agencies responsible for administering the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) — the FAR Council — have issued a rule that requires federal contractors to provide mandatory privacy training to employees who have access to personally identifiable information (PII) in the hands of the government. The new rule, which is similar to the original proposal published on October 14, 2011, applies to government contracts both above and below the minimum threshold, including contracts for commercial items, and flows down to subcontracts as well.
The rule specifies that contractor employees will be granted access, or allowed to retain access, to government records systems and handle PII only if they have completed the required minimum training.
A copy of the final rule, which took effect on January 19, 2017, is available here.
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.