The Modern Women’s Foundation yesterday urged the government to take more action to ensure the effectiveness of a slew of amendments to gender equality laws scheduled to go into effect on Friday next week to protect women at the workplace.
In July last year, lawmakers amended the “three gender equality laws,” a term referring to the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法), Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別平等工作法) and Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法).
The amendments were designed to strengthen legal protections for women and facilitate the prosecution of offenders by defining power abuse in sexual harassment, corporate responsibility, sentencing rules and other guidelines, the Judicial Yuan wrote in a news release at the time.
Photo: CNA
They additionally include provisions for sensitivity training in public and private institutions, victim support and counseling services, statutes of limitation extensions for some circumstances, and obligations for schools including police and military academies.
However, foundation members yesterday said that government diligence is needed to implement the measures, ensure corporate compliance and resolve potential contradictions in the newly changed laws.
The foundation’s Taipei-based call center from July to December last year received 235 phone calls, 33 percent of which were requests for assistance in workplace-related sexual harassment incidents, chairwoman Jennifer Wang (王如玄) told a news conference hosted at the Taipei Bar Association.
Men and women accounted for 15 percent and 85 percent of the callers respectively, she said.
A total of 48 percent of the callers reported incidents that fall under the jurisdiction of the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act, 34 percent of the incidents reported fall under the Gender Equity in Employment Act and 74 percent of the callers made inquiries about issues concerning the law or procedures for making an official complaint.
In addition, 35 percent asked about their eligibility for mental or physical care and 33 percent complained about employers allegedly mishandling reports of sexual harassment, Wang said.
According to the law invoked, a person wishing to make a report about sexual harassment would need to go through a distinct and separate set of legal procedures, as each of the laws was designed for different ends, she said.
Citing an example, Wang said that the Gender Equality in Employment Act mandates that employers internally address sexual harassment incidents reported to them by their workers, while the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act prioritizes punishing abusers.
The government did not create a guideline to specify which of the laws should be applied in any given situation, nor did it clarify management responsibilities after an employee makes a report or policies for rendering aid to victims, she said.
The potential conflict in the applicability of the two acts means hospitals instead of law enforcement could be designated as the party responsible for investigating or punishing patients accused of harassing nurses, Wang said.
Profit-seeking enterprises must be made to understand that turning a blind eye to sexual harassment would result in prohibitively high losses before cultural changes can happen in Taiwanese workplaces, she added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS