Question 108: If Employers have internally issued the Code of practice for promoting equality and preventing discrimination in the workplace and/or the Code of conduct on sexual harassment in the workplace, can they rely on these Codes to impose disciplinary actions?



Pursuant to Article 128 of the Labor Code, one of the preconditions for Employers to impose disciplinary actions on Employees is to prescribe their violations in the enterprise’s ILRs. In addition, if Employers hire 10 or more Employees, the ILRs must be made effective by way of registering them with the local labour management agency.

Therefore, if Employers only issue internal policies (such as the Code of practice for promoting equality and preventing discrimination in the workplace, the Code of conduct on sexual harassment in the workplace) without prescribing them in the internal labour regulations or do not register the ILRs with the competent local labour management agency if they hire 10 or more Employees, Employers will not have legal grounds to apply these policies in dealing with labour discipline violations.