Question 162. Is an Employee required to sign a commitment upon his or her job commencement as a basis for LD action in case of his or her subsequent violation?

Answer:

Labour laws do not force an Employee to sign a commitment with an Employer such as maintenance of the corporate properties, failure to sexually harass in the workplace upon his or her job commencement. However, if the Employer intends to apply a disciplinary measure to the Employee when he or she breaches that commitment, such commitment and remedies as permitted by the law should be documented at least in the Employer’ ILR or LC. In principle, the Employer can only discipline the Employee if he or she has committed a violation specified in the ILR or as agreed in the LC or the violation specified in the Labour Code[1]. Accordingly, when a new Employee is engaged in any job, the essential thing is that the Employer just requires him or her to sign after having read and understood the ILR and then comply with them. Note that these commitments must be consistent with the current labour laws. This alternative is feasible if the number of Employees is small, and the human resources department may appoint a person to have the commitments signed and keep them for use when necessary.

For any job position where the Employee is at a high risk of violation or for the management level, depending on the specific nature of each job, the Employee will be required to sign additional commitments with more detailed content and under higher levels of sanction than other regular Employees due to their specific job positions.

However, if the Employer wishes to integrate the commitment to the LC, but once are too long and/or the Employer want to keep the commitment confidential, the Employer can make the commitment to be an annex to the LC and sign both at the same time.


[1]Article 127.3 of the Labour Code