Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) staffer Chen Chien-jou (陳汘瑈) was 21 when she reported filmmaker Hsueh Chao-hui (薛朝輝), a married man around her father’s age, for forcibly touching her neck and breasts on their return from an election campaign event.
Chen’s complaint was brushed off by her supervisor at the ruling party’s department of women’s affairs. Feeling powerless, she quit the DPP job in April, intending to put her life on pause as she contemplated her next step, until a plotline in the hit Taiwanese Netflix political drama Wave Maker, about workplace harassment, pushed her to share her own experience.
TAIWAN’S #METOO MOVEMENT
Photo: AFP
“I felt that if I did not speak up I would regret it,” Chen said about her decision to come forward and recount her story on social media at the end of May. “I want my life to start anew.”
What followed Chen’s post was the emergence of an unprecedented string of sexual misconduct allegations across figures in politics, media, academia, culture and showbiz.
The fallout has seen Taiwan forced to reckon with the apparent failure of legal protections against workplace harassment nearly six years after the #MeToo movement took hold in the US.
Wang Shu-fen (王淑芬), deputy CEO of the women’s rights group the Garden of Hope Foundation, noted that most of the recent allegations had been leveled against individuals in positions of power.
Wang said that the accusations laid bare how the Ministry of Labor (MOL) long overlooked the gravity of workplace sexual harassment and failed to recognize the traumatic impact it can have on victims.
LEGAL FAILINGS
They also exposed how ineffective the current law, the Act of Gender Equality in Employment, is in helping victims suffering sexual harassment at work pursue justice and set on the path to recovery, Wang said.
Despite the act requiring employers to take measures to “prevent and correct” sexual misconduct, some 250,000 people reported being sexually harassed at work over the past year, according to a survey released by the MOL in March.
One of the major problems is that the law mandates employers take corrective action but does not allow for external intervention when an employer is also the one accused of sexual misconduct.
“A player doubling as the referee does not make a fair game,” Wang said, adding it was not enough to simply rely on the discretion of employers to probe all complaints about workplace sexual harassment.
Lawyer Cynthia Shih (施雅馨), who currently serves on the board of another women’s rights group, the Awakening Foundation, agreed, saying it was hard to imagine internal reporting systems and investigations being effective if a worker is sexually harassed or even assaulted by their employer.
CALLS FOR REFORM
Over the past few years, women’s rights groups have lobbied for legal amendments to set up a mechanism under the MOL or local government labor bureaus for dealing with sexual harassment complaints from individual workers, Shih said.
Such a mechanism should also allow workers dissatisfied with their company’s handling of a sexual harassment complaint to file an appeal with designated outside entities, Shih said.
Similar mechanisms for authorities to look into reports of workplace sexual discrimination already exist under the Employment Service Act, Shih said, adding that there was no reason why it could not be expanded to crack down on sexual misconduct.
Wang said that apart from amending the law, the government should step up measures to ensure that victims of workplace sexual violence are not left alone and unsupported.
The current regulations do not require employers to provide resources to their employees encountering inappropriate sexual advances at work, such as information about counseling or medical help and coverage of those services, Wang added.
She was referring to the Regulations for Establishing Measures of Prevention, Correction, Complaint and Punishment of Sexual Harassment at Workplace, under which an employer may refer their employees to external resources should they experience sexual harassment.
WIDESPREAD WORKPLACE HARASSMENT
Victims of workplace sexual misconduct often repeatedly face harassment from higher-ranking colleagues, Wang said.
According to Wang, those that stand up against recidivism may be bullied by the harasser or shunned by their co-workers.
Pressure like this can lead to depression in the long run, Wang said, adding that it was thus critical that an employer offers a support system for their employees suffering sexual harassment.
Such a support system provided by employers will be beneficial to their companies, Wang went on, as employees will find their work environment “friendly” and be willing to come forward if they face harassment.
The MOL’s survey showed that of all those who had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, approximately 80 percent chose not to file a complaint with their company.
The main reason behind not coming forth is that the victims explained away those misdeeds they had encountered as jokes, followed by concern over the possibility of losing their job, according to the survey. The survey did not delve into why people decided to treat perceived sexual harassment casually, and yet to many victims, including Chen, coming forth with their stories is never easy.
HOPES FOR CHANGE
Taiwanese society does not provide an environment where sexual misconduct victims feel safe and supported to talk about their experience, according to Chen, who described her firing the first shot in the current #MeToo storm as an act of burning bridges in the hope of bringing about some change.
With her story laid bare and the party seeking to make amends, Chen found her wounds had started to heal slowly. The incident could have cost her faith in people and society for life should she remain silent, she said.
Chen, who currently works at a local radio station, said she would not shun politics because of what she has been through.
“But right now I need to focus on my mental well- being,” she said. “My priority is to heal the wounds.”
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