Gender Equality & Labor: Amendments to Gender Equality in Employment Act has been promulgated and become effective on June 18th, 2014.

[2014/06/18]

Amendments to Gender Equality in Employment Act (the “Act”) have been promulgated by President Office and become effective on June 18th, 2014. The most significant changes introduced by the 5th Amendment include:

(1) The amendments expressly broaden the scope of the application of the Act. Not only the regular employees but also the apprentices and other persons similar to apprentices in nature, who are recruited pursuant to Labor Standard Act may be subject to the relevant provisions of the Act. Besides, any sexual harassment suffered by the interns, during the period of internship, shall also be subject to the relevant provisions under the Act.
(2) Although dispatched employees are subject to the supervision and management of the user entities, the user entities are not their employers as the direct labor contract is existing between the dispatched employees and the dispatch service agents. As a result, there has been much controversy over whether the user entities shall be bound by the employer’s obligations under the Act. In order to strengthen the protection for dispatched employees, the amendments, in addition to clearly defining the terms of user entity, dispatched employee and the dispatch service agent, further set forth that, when user entities use the dispatched employees, they shall be deemed as employers and be subject to the relevant requirements and restrictions under the Act, such as prohibitions on gender discrimination (in terms of provision of education, training and welfare measures), prevention of sexual harassment and the measures to promote employment equality (daily feeding time, request for reduction of or adjustment to working hours for the purpose of raising young children less than three years of age).
(3) Pursuant to the Act, employers shall not refuse the employees’ application for reinstatement at the expiration of non-pay parental leave without the statutory grounds. The amendments further set fort the definition of reinstatement, as reinstating the employees’ original position at the time when they applied for the non-pay parental leave.
(4) Increasing the punishment for the violation of the provisions under the Act by the employer. In addition to raising the monetary penalties, the competent authority shall also publish the name of the employer who violates the Act and the name of the responsible person of the violating employer, and order the same to rectify the violation within the designated period of time. Failure to rectify in time shall be punished consecutively per instance.