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1. These Guidelines have been established in order to encourage whistleblowing against violation of the Employment Services Act (hereinafter the “Act”) by foreign nationals, employers and private employment services organizations or individuals, to improve the efficiency of case investigation and processing, to ensure employment opportunities for the citizens and to maintain social stability.
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2. A whistleblower referred to in these Guidelines means a national of the Republic of China or a person that has legally entered into and resides (stays) in the Republic of China, but excluding the following:
(1) Any foreign national in violation of the Act.
(2) Any employer that houses any foreign national illegally or any employer that hires any foreign national to perform work illegally.
(3) Any individual or private employment service organization that acts as a broker to seek employment for foreign nationals illegally, or any employee thereof.
(4) Any person that is subject to enforcement, investigation or repatriation in accordance with the law.
The targets of whistleblowing under these Guidelines are:
(1) Any illegal foreign worker: Meaning any person in violation of Article 43, Paragraph 4 of Article 52, Subparagraph 1 to the first part of Subparagraph 3 (hereinafter “Unknown Whereabouts”) or Subparagraph 7 of Article 73 of the Act that has been ordered by the central competent authority or the immigration authority to leave the territory of the Republic of China.
(2) Illegal Employer:
i. Any employer in violation of Article 44 or Subparagraph 1 or 2 of Article 57 of the Act that has been imposed a fine by a municipal or county (city) competent authority, or that has been handed over to the prosecutorial authority for investigation, or whose permit has been cancelled by the municipal or county (city) competent authority.
ii. Any employer in violation of Article 19 of the Regulations on the Permission and Administration of the Employment of Foreign Workers that has been imposed a fine by the municipal or county (city) competent authority or whose permit has been cancelled by the central competent authority.
iii. Any employer in violation of Subparagraph 3 of 4 or Article 57 of the Act that has been imposed a fine by the municipal or county (city) competent authority or whose permit has been cancelled by the central competent authority due to failure to correct a violation within a stipulated deadline.
iv. Any employer in violation of Subparagraph 10, Paragraph 1, Article 54 of the Act whose permit has been cancelled by the central competent authority.
v. Any employer who has committed the offense of criminal injury, sexual offense, offense against morality or offense against freedom against the foreign worker employed and who is subject to prosecution or deferred prosecution by a prosecutor, a petition for imposition of criminal penalty under summary judgment or non-prosecution in accordance with Article 253 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
(3) Private employment service organizations or individuals in violation of law: Meaning those in violation of Subparagraph 5, 7 or 9 of Article 40, Paragraph 2 of Article 34 or Article 45 of the Act.
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3. The informed agency and investigation authority referred to under these guidelines, includes the immigration authority, police authority, costal guard authority and labor competent authority.
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4. In case of violation, whistleblowers may file reports to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development Agency, Ministry of Labor (hereinafter referred to as the Agency) or the informed agency in oral or written statements, by email or others, specifying information below:
(1) Whistleblower’s name.
(2) Whistleblower’s national identification number or alien residence certificate number or passport number, address, or telephone number to contact.
(3) Violator’s name, company name (trade name), responsible person’s name, or company address.
(4) Facts or circumstances of violation, location and time of violation, related information or evidence for further investigation.
The second and third items from the preceding paragraph are not compulsory if whistleblower is unable to identify.
The Agency assigns the report of an whistleblower to the informed agency upon receipt of the report, the informed agency shall make a written record of the report of the whistleblower and the contents of the report, pay attention to the confidentiality of the report, and seal the report with a confidential seal.
The informed agency may refuse to process reports if the report meets any of the following criteria:
(1) Anonymous or the whistleblower’s identity cannot be verified.
(2) The place of occurrence, date, period or time of the illegal conduct is unclear or is not supported by substantial information and the event of violation cannot be known.
(3) The same case is already subject to reporting or repeated reporting.
The informed agency or investigation authority shall assign staff to perform an investigation within 7 to 14 days and shall prepare investigation minutes (records) about the relevant facts and evidence.
The investigation results shall be provided to the whistleblower by telephone or in writing by the investigation authority. When informing by telephone, it shall be recorded in writing.
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5. The whistleblower shall collect the reward within 3 months from the day following the issuance of notice for reward collection by the investigation authority. Any delay shall be deemed a waiver.
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6. Following investigation of reports from whistleblowers by the informed agency or investigation authority, the following documents shall be provided to the Agency for approval and issuance of the reward:
(1) Application for approval and issuance of reward notice.
(2) Record of processing report or report letter.
(3) Original copy of collection receipt specifying the whistleblower’s name and identification document.
(4) A copy of the whistleblower’s personal passbook. If the passbook is not provided, the Agency will send a non-transferrable and non-endorsable check drawn from the national treasury available for pickup from the bank by the whistleblower.
(5)Other required documents.
The other required documents under Subparagraph (5) of the previous paragraph are as follows:
(1) For any case involving discovery of an illegal employer or illegal private employment service organization or individual, the penalty notice for violation of the Act shall be provided.
(2) For any case about involving discovery of foreign national of Unknown Whereabouts but without discovery of illegal employer or illegal private employment service organization or individual, the minutes of investigation against the illegal foreign national shall be provided.
(3) For any criminal case involving discovery of an illegal employer or illegal private employment service organization or individual, the criminal case handover notice or report shall be provided.
The informed agency may ask the investigation authority to provide information related to the previous 2 subparagraphs.
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7. The principles for determination and amounts of rewards issuable to the whistleblower are specified in the enclosed table.
When the whistleblower for the same case includes multiple persons, upon discovery and verification, the reward shall be issued in accordance to the following circumstances:
(1) When the whistleblower for the same case includes multiple persons, upon discovery and verification, the reward shall be allocated on an equal basis.
(2) When several whistleblowers report the same case one after another, upon discovery and verification, the reward shall be issued to the first whistleblower. If the order of the report cannot be distinguished, the reward shall be issued on an equal basis.
By “same case” in this article, means a case in which the whistleblowers provide the same date, content and location of the report, and the case is investigated.
The whistleblower shall not collect other rewards repeatedly for the same case.
If the same case involves both illegal foreign nationals and illegal employer or illegal private employment service organization or individuals, the whistleblower’s reward of the higher amount shall be applied based on the above principles of determination.
No reward shall be allocated if one of the following circumstances apply:
(1) Anonymous or the whistleblower’s identity cannot be verified.
(2) The whistleblower has not raised a specific violation of the provisions of this Act.
(3) The investigation authorities have already planned the investigation on the reported case.
(4) The report has already been investigated by an investigation authority other than the one that received the report.
(5) The place of violation for which a report is filed is different from the place of violation found by the investigation authority. However, this limit is not applicable if any violation of the provisions of the Act is captured when investigating in accordance with the content of the report.
The Agency shall send written notices to whistleblower requesting the return of such reward within deadline if the whistleblower meets one of the preceding circumstances and has received the reward; if the amount is not returned before the appointed time, the case may be referred to court for compulsory execution.
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8. The Agency shall review and issue the whistleblower’s reward in accordance with the first paragraph of the previous article.
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9. The funds required for the rewards under these Guidelines shall be budgeted by the Agency under the Employment Stability Fund.
Data Source:Ministry of Labor / Law Source Retrieving System Labor Laws And Regulations