Human Rights and Gender Equality
Human Rights Policy
Human rights refer to basic rights that are common to all humans, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, language, religious belief or other differences. Taishin is dedicated to upholding human rights. The organization shares the value of international human rights rules including Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Labor Organization, The UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights and Equator Principles, and complies with regulations of Taiwan and all locations it operates in. After reviewing Taishin's operating model, we have identified employees, customers (including borrowers) and suppliers to be the most relevant stakeholders as far as human right is concerned. We have devised separate policies, statements and guidelines to serve as the ultimate guiding principle for human rights protection.
In addition, we adopt communication, protection and supervision practices to secure the rights of all stakeholders, which provide the foundation of corporate ethics within Taishin.
Taishin actively enforces human rights protection for employees. Not only has the Company made a series of public announcements over its intranet and Internet websites about protection of workers' human rights and prohibition against workplace sexual harassment, the organization has also included worker and human rights-related issues as part of the ethics training for new employees. The announcements and training form part of Taishin's ethics foundation. In 2024, the number of training hours on human rights issues reached 5,810 hours, a total of 2,526 employees participated, and the training completion rate was 100%. Taishin encountered no incident of human rights violation in 2024.
Equal Treatment in the Workplace
For the purpose of creating a fair, safe and enjoyable workplace, Taishin treats employees equally and prohibits all forms of discrimination (such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability etc.) in its recruitment, compensation, promotion, reward and disciplinary decisions. All forms of sexual harassment and intimidation are strictly prohibited in the workplace. Taishin and all its subsidiaries have published "Employee Code of Conduct," "Sexual Harassment Prevention, Reporting and Disciplinary Policy" and "Sexual Harassment Prevention, Reporting and Investigation Guidelines" over their intranet and Internet websites. Employees can make appeals through the dedicated line (886-2-5576-3567), for cases that concern sexual discrimination or harassment, a "Sexual Harassment Prevention and Complaints Review Committee" will be assembled according to laws to conduct investigation in the utmost fairness and discretion, in a manner that protects victim's privacy and prevents witnesses from being retaliated. If a violation is established to be true, the case in question will be referred to Staff Conduct Review and Staff Performance Appraisal Committee and resolved based on the outcome of the investigation in accordance with Employee Disciplinary Guidelines, and hence ensures employees' rights to fair treatment in the workplace. Taishin FHC and its subsidiaries received one workplace sexual harassment complaints in 2024. All complaints have been properly dealt with through standardized procedures. In 2024, we will continue to ensure workplace equality by using various channels to raise awareness and understanding concerning harassment in the workplace, including grievance channels and disciplinary actions that will be taken.
Human Rights Risk Assessment
Taishin conducts human rights risk assessments for employees at all operating locations in Taiwan every year, with a coverage rate of 100%. For the assessment process of human rights issues, the identification of human rights risk factors and the results of human rights risk assessment, please refer to the explanation below.
Value at Human Rights Risk
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VaR(%)
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0.59%
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Issues
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Health and Safety
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Employment Dispute
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Forced Labor /Work Overtime
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Source of Risk
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- Emerging infectious diseases
- Working place
- While performing duties
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- Inappropriate communication/management of the supervisor
- Difference of understanding between employer and employees
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- Short-term increases in business or shortages in manpower
- Requirements of events held by associated companies
- Personal reasons
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Type
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financial, non-financial compensation
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financial, non-financial compensation
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financial, non-financial compensation, warning and punishment
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Mitigation Measures
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- List, as required by law, physical exam record as one of the documents required of new hires when they join the company.
- Conduct regular physical exams for active employees, and subsidize the expenses.
- Implement the Taishin Ergonomic Hazard Prevention Program; provide online courses on ergonomic hazard prevention and infectious diseases; and raise employee awareness of illness prevention.
- Have a professional medical specialist provide onsite health services every month and give health advice targeting high risk groups for ergonomic hazards and cardiovascular diseases.
- Organize flu vaccination stations.
- Conduct occupational health and safety campaigns as required by law.
- Organize health information seminars as needed.
- Organize employee health promotion events.
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- Establish human resource policy and employee rights-related rules in compliance with law.
- Convene quarterly labor-management meetings. Maintain open communication with employees through available channels.
- Organize labor law courses regularly to promote labor laws of which managers should be aware, and improve legal literacy and understanding of management techniques among managers in order to reduce management related disputes.
- Specify internal communication channels in the employee code of conduct so that any employees with labor disputes are able to seek assistance from the human resources department.
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- Establish employee work times and hours in compliance with labor laws.
- Announce and reiterate the normal work hours and times, as well as the regulations for overtime.
- Establish management systems for work hours and overtime, to help employees and supervisors control work hours and overtime hours.
- Implement abnormal overtime reports to enable managers to follow employees' overtime more effectively.
- Monthly review of overtime hours on a per-department basis, and direct attention towards employees with high overtime hours.
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Annual Related Risk Events and Remediation Actions
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- For employees incurring an occupational injury or illness, the company will follow Article 59 of the Labor Standards Act to provide real compensation, including
- Paid occupational injury leave
- Full medical expenses
- When an employee is not fully recovered after two years of treatment and not eligible for disability benefit, the company will pay a final lump sum equal to 40 months wages.
- In the unfortunate event of death of an employee, the company will pay the family a total of 45 months wages for funeral expenses and death benefit.
- If a judicial investigation finds the company liable for damages in incidence of an employee's occupational injury or illness, the company will, depending on the circumstances, assume liability for damages under the Civil Code. For example,
- Remediation for carer fees and income impairment for disabled employees
- Emotional damages and child support for families of deceased employees
- For employees incurring an occupational injury or illness, the company will follow Article 59 of the Labor Standards Act to provide real compensation, including
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- Make best efforts to communicate with the parties involved to learn more details and seek possible settlement.
- If it is confirmed during mediation that the employee's rights have been violated, the company will make best efforts as a responsible employer to negotiate with the employee for an appropriate remediation plan, including supplementary wages, leaves, redundancy pay, and proof of service.
- Where the dispute has arisen from management, the company will reinforce the knowledge of dispute related regulations and management measures in the manager(s) involved in order to prevent repeat of similar incidents as much as possible.
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- The company strictly prohibits forced overtime or extensive overtime. If an employee is found to have been forced to work overtime or extensive overtime, the company will promptly negotiate with the employee for an appropriate remediation plan, including but not limited to overtime pay or vacation in lieu. The company will also take strict disciplinary action against managers who force employees to work overtime or make them work excessive overtime.
- For managers and employees in the department where such an incident has taken place, the company will reiterate the overtime system and management measures in order to prevent repeat of similar incidents as much as possible.
Note1: Human rights risk value (%) = number of employees identified as at risk / total number of employees in the current yeara
Note2: The risk assessment is based on the extended working hours of more than 40 hours for two consecutive months.
