'HK Women Less Likely To Act On Work Harassment'

A survey by the Equal Opportunities Commission has found that Hong Kong women are less inclined to take action if they are sexually harassed at work compared to recent mainland immigrants – even though they are more aware about the issue.

Prof Annie Chan from the Lingnan University, who helped the conducted the study, said all the recent arrivals who were surveyed were mainland migrants who have been in Hong Kong for less than seven years.

"The kind of time and effort, or investment and training that they have put into the career would be shorter compared to the locally-born woman. So they would think the costs for them to change jobs would be lower," she said.

"The longer that a new migrant woman has lived in Hong Kong the more likely that she will not do anything about sexual harassment. It is almost like they assimilate into the culture," Chan said.

The watchdog's survey also found that one in ten women have been sexually harassed at work before.

Workers working in smaller companies are also less likely to take action compared to employees of larger organisations, the study suggests.

The EOC urged all companies to establish clearly defined anti-sexual harassment policies, provide adequate training for staff and set up proper mechanisms to handle complaints.