Suppose a regional director from a U.S. parent company visits the Taipei subsidiary every quarter. In meetings he makes sexual jokes about a local employee's appearance, and in the evenings he keeps messaging her to meet him alone. She reports it to the subsidiary's HR manager.
He is not on the subsidiary's payroll, but it is her employer. Under Taiwan's Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別平等工作法) it must take steps so the harassment does not recur, notify the local competent authority, and close its investigation within two months of the day after it received the complaint.
Articles 13 and 32-1, among others, were changed or added by an amendment promulgated on August 16, 2023 (legislative history) and took effect on March 8, 2024 (Article 40), the same day as the Regulations for Establishing Measures on Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (工作場所性騷擾防治措施準則, "the Regulations") (Article 21).
What the Act treats as sexual harassment
Article 12 covers two situations. In the first, anyone, in the course of an employee's work, makes sexual requests or uses sexual or gender-discriminatory words or conduct that create a hostile, intimidating or offensive working environment and infringe the employee's dignity or physical liberty or affect job performance. "Anyone" means the harasser need not be a co-worker. In the second, an employer makes such requests or uses such conduct toward an employee or job applicant as a condition for hiring, assignment, pay, evaluation or promotion. Harassing someone under one's command or supervision by using one's authority is abuse of power sexual harassment (權勢性騷擾), which lengthens the complaint deadlines and raises the damages.
Conduct outside working hours is covered in three cases: persistent harassment by the same person in the employee's own employing entity; persistent harassment by the same person in another entity with collaborative work or business relations with it; and harassment by the highest-ranking official (最高負責人) or the employer personally (僱用人), together "the top official" in this column. "Persistent" means the harassment occurs in both working and non-working hours and close together in time (Enforcement Rules, Article 4-2).
The highest-ranking official is the person recorded as the entity's external representative in the company registration. The local authority may also treat as equivalent a person who in substance performs the representative's duties or controls personnel, finances or operations and who, for example, is or was a director or holds 20 percent or more of the shares (same article, paragraph 3). If the visiting director is the subsidiary's registered representative, his off-hours conduct is covered without any showing of persistence.
What has to be in place before any complaint
Article 13, paragraph 1, and the Regulations scale the employer's standing obligations to headcount, counting employees of branch offices and affiliated units (Enforcement Rules, Article 5).
| Employees | What the employer must have (articles of the Regulations) |
|---|---|
| 10 to 29 | A complaint channel, such as a dedicated phone line or email address, posted conspicuously in the workplace (Art. 2) |
| 30 or more | Also: written prevention measures, complaint procedures and disciplinary rules, publicly posted (Art. 3); training (Art. 9); a complaint processing unit (Art. 12) |
| 100 or more | Also, for complaints: an investigation team that includes an outside professional with gender awareness (Art. 13) |
The complaint processing unit must include a professional with gender awareness, and at least half its members must be women. The written rules must tell employees that they can complain directly to the local authority when the accused is the top official. Managers and complaint handlers must be trained every year.
From complaint to closed investigation
Once the employer knows of harassment, it must take immediate and effective corrective and remedial measures (Article 13, paragraph 2). After a complaint from the victim, that means preventing a recurrence, providing or referring counseling, medical and social welfare resources, investigating, and disciplining or otherwise dealing with the harasser. Separation measures must take the complainant's wishes into account, and the complainant's pay and working conditions must not be changed for the worse (Regulations, Article 6).
An employer that learns of it some other way must clarify the facts, help the victim complain if the victim wishes, adjust work content or the workplace as appropriate, and offer the same support, even when the victim does not want to file a complaint.
On receiving a complaint, the employer must notify the local competent authority for the place where the victim works, and report the outcome if harassment is found (Article 13, paragraph 4; Enforcement Rules, Article 4-3); the Ministry of Labor provides a reporting system.
The investigation must be objective, fair and professional, closed to the public, and must give the parties a full chance to state their case (Article 13, paragraph 3; Regulations, Article 12). The employer notifies both parties in writing of the reasoned decision (Article 17) and must close the case within two months from the day after it received the complaint. It may extend by one month if necessary and must tell the parties (Article 18).
In a serious case against a person in a position of authority, the employer may, if necessary, suspend or adjust that person's duties during the investigation, and must make up the pay if harassment is not found. If serious harassment is found, it may terminate the contract without notice within 30 days of learning the result (Article 13-1).
Where the harasser belongs to a different employing entity with collaborative work or business relations, that entity has the same duty (Article 13, paragraph 2), and whichever employer learns of the harassment must notify the other so the two can work out a remedy together (Regulations, Article 7). The subsidiary cannot delay its investigation because the director reports to head office.
Going straight to the local authority
Complaints normally go to the employer. Article 32-1 allows one directly to the local competent authority, the municipal or county (city) government, in two situations: the accused is the top official; or the employer has not dealt with the complaint, or the employee disagrees with the investigation or disciplinary result.
That complaint must be filed within two years of learning of the harassment and within five years of the end of the conduct. Where the accused holds a position of authority, the periods are three years and seven years. A complainant who was a minor at the time has three years from reaching adulthood. Where the accused is the top official, the complaint may also be filed within one year of leaving the job, though not later than ten years after the conduct ended. In both cases the general deadline applies if it is longer.
While the authority investigates a complaint against the top official, the complainant may ask for adjusted duties or working arrangements until 30 days after the result is served on the employer, and the employer may not refuse (Article 32-2, paragraph 5). An employee can also complain there when the employer did not take the immediate measures or retaliated (Article 34).
Damages, fines and retaliation
The employer and the harasser are jointly liable for the victim's pecuniary and non-pecuniary loss. The employer escapes liability only by proving that it complied with the Act's prevention rules and did its utmost to prevent the harassment, and even then a court may, on the victim's application, weigh both sides' finances and order it to pay all or part (Article 27). For abuse of power harassment the court may add punitive damages of one to three times the loss at the victim's request; where the harasser is the top official, the victim may claim three to five times. An employer that fails to take the immediate measures is liable for the resulting loss (Article 28). These claims lapse two years after the claimant learns of the loss and who is liable, and ten years after the conduct (Article 30).
The fines in Article 38-1 are NT$20,000 to NT$1,000,000 for failing to take the immediate measures, NT$20,000 to NT$300,000 for an employer of 30 or more with no written rules, and NT$10,000 to NT$100,000 for an employer of 10 to 29 that has no complaint channel and misses the deadline set for fixing it. The authority also publishes the employer's name, its responsible person's name, the decision date, the article violated and the amount. A top official found by the local authority to have committed harassment is fined NT$10,000 to NT$1,000,000 (Article 38-2).
An employer may not dismiss, transfer or otherwise disadvantage an employee for filing a complaint under the Act or helping someone else file one (Article 36); the fine is NT$20,000 to NT$300,000 (Article 38).
A global policy does not replace the Taiwan rules
A group code of conduct or a head-office ethics hotline does not satisfy what the Act and the Regulations ask of the Taiwan employer: the posted channel and rules, notice to the local authority, the make-up of the complaint processing unit, the two-month deadline and the written decision. Employer-employee agreements more favorable than the Act prevail (Article 2), so a stricter group standard can sit on top of the local rules.
A dismissal or pay dispute that follows a complaint is covered in Labor dispute mediation in Taiwan for foreign employees and Told your Taiwan job is ending?.
To discuss a specific case, email Hovering International Law Firm at wei@hoveringlaw.com.tw with the dates, the roles and employers of those involved, and the Taiwan entity's headcount. This column is general information; each case turns on its own facts and evidence.
Official sources
- Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別平等工作法; amendment promulgated August 16, 2023), Art. 2, Art. 12, Art. 13, Art. 13-1, Art. 27, Art. 28, Art. 30, Art. 32-1, Art. 32-2, Art. 34, Art. 36, Art. 38, Art. 38-1, Art. 38-2, Art. 40, and the legislative history
- Enforcement Rules of Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別平等工作法施行細則; amended April 8, 2026), Art. 4-2, Art. 4-3, Art. 5
- Regulations for Establishing Measures on Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (工作場所性騷擾防治措施準則; amended January 17, 2024, in force March 8, 2024), Art. 2, Art. 3, Art. 6, Art. 7, Art. 9, Art. 12, Art. 13, Art. 17, Art. 18, Art. 21
- Ministry of Labor (勞動部), workplace sexual harassment case reporting system
- Official English translations used to check wording: Gender Equality in Employment Act, Enforcement Rules, Regulations
Checked: October 6, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
- The person accused works for our overseas head office, not for the Taiwan subsidiary. Does the subsidiary still have to act?
- Yes. Article 12 of the Gender Equality in Employment Act covers harassment by anyone in the course of an employee's work, and Article 13, paragraph 2 requires the employer to take immediate and effective corrective and remedial measures once it knows. Where the victim and the harasser belong to different employing entities with collaborative work or business relations, the harasser's employer has the same duty, and under Article 7 of the Regulations either employer must notify the other so they can work out a remedy together.
- Can an employee skip the company and complain to the government?
- In two situations under Article 32-1: when the accused is the highest-ranking official or the employer personally, and when the employer has not dealt with the complaint or the employee disagrees with the investigation or disciplinary result. The deadline is two years from learning of the harassment and five years from the end of the conduct, or three and seven years when the accused holds a position of authority.
- How long does the employer have to finish its investigation?
- Two months from the day after it receives the complaint, under Article 18 of the Regulations. It may extend by one month if necessary and must tell the parties. It must also notify the local competent authority when the complaint arrives and report the outcome if harassment is found.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice on any individual matter.
