The Executive Yuan has been working on stricter punishments for employers found guilty of sexual offenses, as well as an improved system for reporting offenses to reduce harm from the complaint and litigation process, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
The comments came after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) asked lawmakers to propose amendments to three gender equality laws amid a spate of sexual harassment and assault accusations.
The Executive Yuan has asked the Legal Aid Foundation to establish a sexual offense complaint hotline, through which lawyers would provide free legal consultations, the source said.
The Executive Yuan has already started discussions over possible amendments to the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法), the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法) and the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法), and it has some preliminary ideas about what to change, the source said, adding that the issue would be discussed during the next legislative session.
The Act of Gender Equality in Employment stipulates that employers must take action to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, but it does not provide a means to punish employers who themselves commit such acts, the source said.
An amendment would impose heavy penalties on offending employers, the source said, adding that in the public sector, gender equality-related issues and sexual-offense complaints would be handled by a committee convened by an official below the level of deputy minister.
In the event that the head of a government agency commits an offense, it would be handled by the gender-equality committee of a higher-ranking agency, the source said.
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