Pou Chen Group (寶成工業) was fined NT$300,000 on Wednesday for failing to properly address sexual misconduct allegations against its former vice president Yang Hsiao-tung (羊曉東), the Taichung City Labor Affairs Bureau said on Friday.
The company was aware of the sexual misconduct in the workplace by its vice president, but it did not take any legal measures to correct the behavior or compensate the employees, the bureau said in a statement.
The company was fined according to the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法), and the name of the person in charge is to be made public, it said.
The Pou Chen Group is also required to make improvements within a designated period, it said.
The case first went public in mid-June when Taichung City Councilor Lin Chi-feng (林祈烽) said at a hearing that three employees of the company came to him to seek help as they told Lin about Yang’s alleged sexual misconduct against them.
In a statement on Friday, Lin said that before the employees sought his help, two of them had already reported the sexual misconduct, including stalking and secretly taking their photos, to their supervisor, but they were told to “just stay away if you don’t like it.”
That response stressed them out and they eventually quit, Lin said.
The fine by the city government indicated that the Pou Chen Group refused to acknowledge and properly address the case, Lin said.
Several issues emerged when the company attempted to investigate the case, which showed that the company’s gender equality committee did not treat the victims fairly and caused them further harm repeatedly during the process, he said.
Yang even reported Lin to the Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in the wake of the allegations in mid-June, to threaten him with legal action, Lin said.
The fine showed that the city government rejected the company’s investigation and that it was not legitimate, Lin said.
Also, based on the amendments to three laws governing sexual misconduct, which took effect recently, victims can report their case directly to city governments, and cities can form gender equality committees to investigate cases again.
The Pou Chen Group on Friday said that it respected the city government’s administrative procedure, but disagreed with it and the company would proceed in accordance with regulations on follow-ups.
Yang denied all of the sexual misconduct allegations in mid-June, but said he would quit his job.
Last month, Yang said on Facebook that his company’s gender equality committee determined that the sexual misconduct allegations were not true, proving his innocence.
In other news, TV host Mickey Huang (黃子佼) was interrogated by prosecutors and released on NT$350,000 bail on Friday amid sexual misconduct accusations.
Officers from the Taipei City Police Department’s Women’s and Children’s Protection Division searched Huang’s residence and studio, while prosecutors questioned him for an hour, before granting bail, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said.
On June 19, a woman called Zofia said in a Facebook post that an unnamed celebrity, later revealed to be Huang, committed acts of sexual misconduct against her more than a decade ago, when she was 17 years old.
In the post, Zofia said Huang forcibly kissed her in his car without her consent, and also persuaded her to pose for semi-nude photos, claiming they would be part of an art exhibition.
Responding to the accusation, 51-year-old Huang released a video on Facebook the same day admitting he was the man Zofia referred to in her post and apologized for his behavior.
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