TAIWAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Che-Hung Chen, Doris Lu, Jakob Huang and Meng-Ying Lee, Chen & Lin Attorneys-at-Law
lecting, processing, and using employees’ per - sonal data, such as obtaining employee consent for data collection and adhering to purpose limi - tations. Besides general requirements, issues relevant to workplace privacy mainly focus on email moni - toring and whistle-blowing. Email Monitoring In most cases, a Taiwan court uses two stand - ards to determine whether email monitoring is in violation of employees’ privacy rights, as fol - lows: • whether the employees have a reasonable privacy expectation for these emails; and • if there is no reasonable privacy expectation, whether it is prohibited by law for employers to monitor employees’ emails. The concept of “reasonable privacy expecta - tion” is based on Article 3 of the Communication Security and Surveillance Act, which provides that the communications under surveillance are limited to those that have content that may rea - sonably be expected to be private or secret by the persons who are monitored, with sufficient factual support. Some court rulings further point out that if the company has an email policy in place and has explicitly stated that employees’ emails will be monitored, or if the employees have signed written consent for email monitor - ing, it is hard to say that the employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy for such emails. Whistle-Blowing Private sector According to the Labour Standards Act, upon the discovery of any violation by the business entity of labour laws or administrative regula -
tions, an employee may file a complaint with the employer, the competent authorities or the inspection agencies. The employer cannot then: • terminate the employment relationship; • change the employment terms and condi - tions; • reduce the wages or the rights and other benefits; or • take any unfavourable measure against such employee. If the employer violates any of these prohibitions, such action shall be null and void. Also, the competent authority receiving the com - plaint should keep the identity of the complain - ant in confidence, and should not disclose any information that might reveal it. Any authority that violates this shall be liable for damages so caused to the complainant. In addition, public officials shall be held liable under criminal and administrative laws. Public sector On 27 December 2024, the Public Interest Whistle-Blower Protection Act was passed by the Legislative Yuan. The scope of this Act and the agencies responsible for handling whistle- blowing apply to the public sector, state-owned enterprises, and government-controlled busi - nesses, but do not extend to the private sector. Further, the Act defines a whistle-blower as a public servant or personnel working in a gov - ernment agency, as well as employees working in state-owned enterprises or government-con - trolled businesses. Whistle-blowers must file a report with the appropriate agency under their real name. If they do not receive notification of the acceptance and
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