Countdown to the New Law: How HR Leaders Can Avoid the 7 Major Pitfalls Under the New Workplace Bullying Rules

Recently, many HR managers have asked me: “The Workplace Bullying Prevention Guidelines are still only in draft form. Can the company wait for now?”

My advice is simple: legal compliance should not begin only after a law formally takes effect. Companies should build their systems in advance so that they can withstand scrutiny from complainants, competent authorities, the media, courts, and even online public opinion.

With only 32 days left before the new workplace bullying rules under the Occupational Safety and Health Act take effect, is your company ready? Do HR leaders already understand that old SOPs can no longer be used to handle new risks?

More than a month ago, the Ministry of Labor preannounced the draft Workplace Bullying Prevention Guidelines. The key points include the recognition of workplace bullying, preventive measures, complaint acceptance, investigation procedures, mediation, conflict-of-interest recusal, appeals, and remedies.

Article 22-2 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act has also expressly provided that, once an employer becomes aware of workplace bullying, the employer must take “immediate, effective, and appropriate measures.”

Workplace bullying prevention is no longer a marginal side task of the HR department. From today onward, it is a core required course in corporate governance.

For education and training inquiries, please contact Yesin Law Firm:Tel: 02-25156822Website: https://www.yesinlaw.com.tw/

1. Companies with 30 or More Employees Can No Longer Simply Say, “Someone Will Handle It”

The draft Guidelines require employers with 30 or more employees to establish workplace bullying prevention measures, complaint procedures, and disciplinary rules, and to publicly disclose them. The rules must also designate a responsible unit to coordinate the relevant matters.

Translated into plain language: a company cannot simply hide a complaint mailbox in a corner of the HR webpage, nor can it wait until a case explodes before hastily convening a meeting.

A responsible unit is not a nominal title. It must be responsible for system design, education and training, case triage, procedural control, and record retention.

For HR departments, the first step in workplace bullying prevention is to ensure that employees clearly know four things: who can receive a complaint, how to file a complaint, how long the process will take, and who will conduct the investigation.

2. A Complaint Handling Unit Cannot Be Formed by Randomly Gathering Three Familiar People

For companies with 30 or more employees, a complaint handling unit must be established to process workplace bullying complaints. The unit must consist of at least three members, and no gender may account for less than one-third of the total. For companies with fewer than 30 employees, the unit may be jointly formed by the employer and labor representatives, but the principle of appropriate gender balance should still be observed.

The legal rationale behind this is not merely formal gender equality. It is also to prevent the complaint process from being monopolized by a single department, a single power structure, or a single gender perspective.

If the members of the complaint handling unit make the complaining employee feel, from the very beginning, that “they are all the boss’s people,” then even if the subsequent investigation is diligent and thorough, it will still be difficult to avoid the suspicion of institutional cover-up.

3. Companies with 100 or More Employees Must Prepare External Investigation Capacity in Advance

The most common mistake made by large companies is assuming that their internal legal, HR, and audit teams are strong enough to handle every workplace bullying case.

The draft Guidelines impose higher requirements on employers with 100 or more employees:

After accepting a complaint, the employer must form an investigation panel within seven days.

The investigation panel must consist of at least three members. External professionals must account for no less than one-half of the panel. No gender may account for less than one-third of the total.

Internal investigation members must also receive at least three hours of workplace bullying prevention training.

The two key terms “investigation panel” and “external experts” should be placed into HR’s annual compliance plan immediately. Do not wait until the first complaint letter arrives before starting to look for names. By then, the situation will already be urgent, and it will be difficult to expect a well-designed response from an improvised arrangement.

4. Receiving a Complaint Is Not About Soothing Emotions; It Is About Activating the Statutory Procedure Step by Step

Article 22-2 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires that, once an employer becomes aware of workplace bullying through a complaint, the employer must adopt measures to prevent recurrence, provide consultation, assistance, and protection according to the complainant’s needs, and conduct an investigation. If the complaint is substantiated, the employer must also impose appropriate disciplinary action or handling measures against the perpetrator.

The one sentence HR managers must avoid most is: “Why don’t you two talk privately first?”

Mediation may be available, but it cannot replace an investigation. Comforting the employee may be appropriate, but it cannot become a way to bury the case.

A truly professional process is to first protect the complainant, then clarify the facts, and only then determine responsibility. It should not begin by asking whether the company will lose face or whether the company’s image will be damaged.

5. The Eight Core Elements Must Be Written into the Rules — and Must Actually Work in Practice

For companies with 30 or more employees, written rules cannot contain only attractive headings.

The draft Guidelines require the written rules to include, at a minimum: types of prohibited conduct and preventive measures, education and training, complaint investigation procedures and appeal mechanisms, qualifications of investigators and composition of investigation panels, conflict-of-interest recusal, confidentiality and prohibition of retaliation, disciplinary or handling measures, handling of maliciously fabricated facts, and the channel for filing a complaint with the local competent authority when the highest-ranking person in charge is the respondent.

Conflict-of-interest recusal and prohibition of retaliation are not decorative legal language. They are core indicators by which competent authorities will later examine whether the company has complied with due process.

6. Manager Training Is Not Merely a Sign-In Sheet; It Is a Substantive Transformation of Management Culture

The draft Guidelines require employers with 30 or more employees to conduct workplace bullying prevention training. In addition, supervisors at all levels, as well as those participating in complaint investigation, handling, mediation, and appeal procedures, must receive additional training related to communication skills, management, and complaint handling.

This means companies cannot simply send HR personnel to training while allowing frontline managers to continue managing teams through humiliation, freezing out employees, isolation, or ridicule.

Real education and training must make managers understand one principle: it is acceptable to strictly demand performance, but it is not acceptable to use one’s authority to damage another person’s dignity. It is acceptable to manage underperforming employees, but it is not acceptable to disguise abuse of power as “shock education” or “I’m doing this for your own good.”

7. The Real Value of HR Is to Transform Complaint Risk into Governance Upgrade

In the future, the key issue for companies facing workplace bullying will not be whether they can achieve “zero complaints.” The real question is whether they have a trustworthy mechanism for handling complaints.

Employees who are willing to file complaints do not necessarily mean the company is terrible. On the contrary, employees who dare not complain may indicate that the company’s risks are being driven underground and accumulating beneath the surface.

What HR leaders must do is not merely prevent public backlash. They must establish a system that protects the complainant’s lawful and reasonable right to file a complaint, safeguards the respondent’s full procedural right to respond, ensures investigators are independent and objective, and keeps records complete and traceable.

A Reminder from Attorney Chen Yeh-Hsin

HR leaders of all companies with 100 or more employees, please take note: promptly incorporate the following ten key terms into your company’s “Workplace Bullying Prevention Measures, Complaint, and Disciplinary Rules”:

workplace bullying prevention, responsible unit, complaint handling unit, gender ratio, investigation panel, external experts, conflict-of-interest recusal, prohibition of retaliation, Occupational Safety and Health Act amendments, and HR governance.

Only then will your company have a real chance to transform this milestone-level labor compliance pressure into an upgrade in employer branding and organizational trust.