Taiwan – Non-judicial grievance mechanisms

IV. The corporate responsibility to respect human rights

B. Actions taken

• Greater information transparency (page 13)

‘At the same time, the Taiwan government has also provided businesses with the tools and guidance needed to implement their CSR policies, and has continually conducted outreach activities to encourage businesses to: […] establish internal grievance channels.’

This information is also covered under Appendix 4: Overview of the implementation of the state duty to protect and the access to remedy, The state duty to protect, UNGP3, Actions taken (page 42).

 

C. Actions planned

• Continue encouraging businesses to adopt and implement human rights policies

The Taiwanese government ‘will encourage companies to establish internal remedy systems so that disputes can be resolved through in-house complaint mechanisms. This would reduce the volume of litigation filed with the courts.’

This information is also covered under Appendix 4: Overview of the implementation of the state duty to protect and the access to remedy, Access to remedy, UNGP28, Actions planned (page 58).

 

V. Access to remedy

B. Actions taken

• Non-judicial remedy (pages 18-19)

‘The Taiwan government encourages members of the public to make use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes (e.g. grievance, conciliation, mediation, and arbitration procedures that are provided to the public by courts, government agencies, and private groups) to achieve the earliest possible resolution of disputes involving many different matters, including medical treatment, labor-management issues, gender equality, and consumer protection.

Pre-mediation proceedings

In the field of labor-related disputes, for example, in order to provide alternative dispute resolution schemes, the “Act for Settlement of Labor-Management Disputes” establishes mediation, arbitration, and administrative decision mechanisms. Also, the “Code of Civil Procedure” and the “Labor Incident Act” both provide for a compulsory conciliation system so that cases will, in principle, have to first go through conciliation proceedings, and then proceed to judicial proceedings only after conciliation fails to yield a resolution.

Bringing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) resources into play

The Taiwan government has also launched a Search Platform for Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms to provide stronger links between public and private ADR mechanisms. The Search Platform to sets out information on various ADR mechanisms, categorizing its listings on the basis of type of institution, type of dispute, name of organization, location of organization, etc. Anyone can use the ADR Search Platform to quickly find an ADR body to handle a dispute resolution process.

Grievance system for employment discrimination

The labor competent authorities in local governments throughout Taiwan have already established employment discrimination grievance channels to deal with instances of employment discrimination involving gender, age, and disability. Accordingly, employees or job seekers who discover law-breaking behavior on the part of an employer can file a grievance via any of the aforementioned channels.’

This information is also covered under Appendix 4: Overview of the implementation of the state duty to protect and the access to remedy, Access to remedy, UNGP27, Actions taken (pages 57-58) and UNGP28, Actions taken (page 58).