Police and Taipei City Government authorities are investigating allegations of sexual harassment after a female employee at a hair salon in Neihu District (內湖) said she had to take off her underwear and hand it over to her boss for a purported “medical check.”
The 24-year-old said the incident took place on her first day on the job earlier this week after the salon’s owner, surnamed Ho (何), allegedly demanded that she go to the washroom to produce a urine sample.
She said that when Ho asked her to take off her underwear, he told her that all employees are required to do the same and showed her a cardboard box filled with women’s underwear, which led her to believe Ho might have some kind of sexual perversion.
After going home, both she and her boyfriend thought the incident was odd and filed a complaint with the police, she said.
Ho, 36, yesterday told reporters that he did not intend to sexually harass his employees, but wanted to conduct medical examinations to respond to the health concerns of the salon’s clients.
Ho admitted to asking female employees to take off their underwear and give urine samples, “but I had discussed this matter first with my staff and they agreed to the requests,” he added.
Ho said the underwear and the urine samples were sent to a certified laboratory for urinalysis and examination of bodily fluids extracted from the underwear to see if the employees have infectious diseases.
“The hairstylists are in close contact with the clients. So I do not want workers who have infectious disease to pass them on to our clients,” he said.
“I had a hairstylist who had a sexually transmitted disease, but hid her condition. She infected a coworker through close contact and saliva. I had to close that salon because of what happened,” he said.
Liu Chia-hung (劉家鴻), an official at the Department of Labor, said Ho seemed to have violated the labor law that barred businesses from demanding private and personal information unrelated to job duties, and from forcing employees to comply with his demands, adding that he may be subjected to a fine of up to NT$150,000.
Ho might have also breached sexual harassment regulations and an investigation is being conducted, Liu added.
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