On April 8, 2026, the Ministry of Labor revised and promulgated Article 4-2 of the Enforcement Rules for the Gender Equality in Employment Act, supplementing the interpretation of the “highest responsible person” defined in the Act. If an employee or job applicant is sexually harassed by one of the six categories of persons newly specified as equivalent to the highest responsible person, they may directly file a complaint with the local competent authority. If that authority determines the conduct constitutes sexual harassment, a fine of between NT$10,000 and NT$1,000,000 will be imposed. 

In practice, when employees suffer sexual harassment by persons who are not the registered external representative (such as the chairperson’s spouse, a director, or someone occupying a key position in the business), it is difficult to expect the company to conduct investigations in an objective, fair, and professional manner. Additionally, under the Gender Equality in Employment Act, apart from the external representative of the business entity, persons equivalent to the representative are determined on a case-by-case basis by the local competent authority when sexual harassment by them occurs. 

To protect the complaint rights of employees and job applicants, to help local competent authorities have clear grounds for adjudication, and to strengthen the obligation of those with de facto control over the organization, the Ministry of Labor revised and promulgated Article 4-2 of the Rules, clearly defining those persons referred to in the Act as equivalent to the representative: business operators who actually execute the representative’s duties or who have substantive control over organizational personnel, finance, or business operations, with the following six categories: 

1. Current or former directors or supervisors (including board members or auditors) . 
2. Persons holding 20% or more of the company’s shares. 
3. Persons identified by labor unions, shareholders, business partners, or complainants, as equivalent to the representative, with concrete evidence. 
4. The representative’s spouse, former spouse; blood relatives within the 4-degree kinship; spouses of blood relatives within the 3-degree; or their spouses; or spouses’ blood relatives within the 3-degree etc. 
5. Representatives who have been re-elected but whose registration has not yet been completed 
6. Persons in particularly important positions 

In the previous fiscal year (2025), the local competent authorities received a total of 621 workplace sexual harassment complaints. Among those, cases in which the respondents were the highest responsible person or employer amounted to 109 (17.6%), and 33 cases were ultimately found valid. Female complainants accounted for 83.9%, and the age group 25 to 44 years was the largest.