萬國法律事務所

An amendment of Taiwan’s Employment Service Law, which prohibits an employer from requesting a job seeker or the employer’s employees to surrender “any personal data not required for the purpose of employment”, became effective in November 2012.

In order to provide guidance to the local authorities and employers regarding the legal enforcement of and compliance with the newly amended provision, the Council of Labor Affairs further announced an amendment to the Enforcement Rules for the Employment Service Law (“Amendment”) on May 7, 2013, which identifies the categories of “personal data not required for the purpose of employment”.

According to the Amendment, the categories include the following: (1) physiological information: e.g., genetic testing, drug testing, medical testing, HIV testing, intelligence tests, or fingerprints; (2) psychological information: e.g., psychological tests, honesty tests, polygraphs; (3) personal life information: e.g., credit records, criminal records, family planning, and background checks.

The Amendment also provides that when requesting personal data from job seekers and employees, the employer must respect the rights and interests of the subject, and the request must be justifiable and have a reasonable connection with the purposes of collection, which purposes are limited to, among others, economic needs or preservation of public interests.

Per the Employment Service Law, anyone who violates the above provision may be fined an amount of at minimum NT$ 60,000 and a maximum of NT$ 300,000.

The proposed Amendment must still be officially announced by the Executive Yuan before it will become effective.