Taiwan Proposes to Impose Obligations on Employers Addressing Workplace Bullying
Taiwan’s Executive Yuan (the “Cabinetâ€) proposed amendments to Taiwan’s main labor safety legislation, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (“OSHAâ€), on 28 August 2025. As there is currently no specific law in Taiwan governing the prevention or countermeasures against workplace bullying in the private sector, and since several recent workplace bullying incidents have drawn the labor regulators’ attention, the Cabinet proposed addressing workplace bullying in the amendments to the OSHA (the “Amendmentsâ€).
According to the Amendments, workplace bullying refers to: “where an employee, in the course of performing duties at the workplace, suffers harm to his or her physical or mental health as a result of personnel of the business entity (including the employer, managers, employees and other personnel managed or supervised by the employer), by taking advantage of his/her/their position, authority, or other business relationships, engaging in words or conduct that exceed the necessary and reasonable scope of business operations and that continuously involve offense, threats, neglect, isolation, humiliation, or other improper treatment.†However, where the circumstances are deemed by Taiwan’s labor regulators to constitute material acts of workplace bullying (for example, public coercion or humiliation), continuity of such conduct shall not be required.
Under the Amendments, employers are required to take the following actions to prevent, establish countermeasures and report workplace bullying:
1. Establish prevention measures against workplace bullying
An employer who employs more than 30 employees is required to establish internal regulations for prevention measures, grievance procedures and disciplinary measures against workplace bullying, which must be publicized at the workplace.
2. Establish countermeasures against workplace bullying
An employer shall, upon receiving a grievance from an employee alleging workplace bullying, promptly implement the following measures: (i) take steps to prevent such employee from being subjected to further workplace bullying; (ii) provide counseling, assistance, or protective measures as reasonably requested by such employee; (iii) conduct an investigation into the grievance; and (iv) impose appropriate disciplinary measures on the bully.
Where potential workplace bullying is identified through channels other than a grievance filed by the bullied employee (for example, through a report made by his/her colleague), the employer shall not only provide the necessary assistance and protective measures but shall also ascertain the facts of the alleged workplace bullying.
3. Report obligations
Upon receiving a grievance from an employee, the employer is required to report information regarding the workplace bullying, along with the handling outcome, to the website designated by the labor regulators.
In addition, where the employee is bullied by the representative of the business entity, the employee has the right to file a grievance directly with the local labor regulator(s) within the period set forth in the Amendments.
Employers who fail to comply with the aforementioned requirements and obligations may be subject to an administrative fine.
The Amendments have been submitted to Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan (“Congressâ€) for review and discussion. The labor regulator will publish further guidance on investigation procedures, grievance procedures, reporting methods and other prevention measures after the Amendments become effective.
|
| Contact
|
This publication is intended to
highlight selected legal developments and not
to be comprehensive nor to provide legal advice.
If you have any questions on issues reported here
or if you have any issues you would like to see
covered in future editions, please contact the
editors:
Robert C. Lee, at +886-2-8725-6601, rclee@yangminglaw.com
Dannie Liu, at +886-2-8725-6605, dannieliu@yangminglaw.com
If you are interested in subscribing or unsubscribing to any of our newsletters, please click here.
|
 |
Print
