Campus Digest

School of Business organises forum on employment discrimination

03 May 2013

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(From second from left) Mr. Francis Mok, The Hon. Chan Yuen-han, Ms. Amanda Yik, and Professor Randy Chiu explore the employment discrimination problems from different perspectives
Speaking as the Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission, Dr. York Chow analyses the inequality situation happening in the workplace

 

To enable employers, employees, human resources practitioners and policymakers to understand more about the discrimination problems that currently exist in the workplace and to arouse their awareness of the issue, the Centre for Human Resources Strategy and Development under the School of Business organised a forum on Saturday (27 April) and invited five professionals and scholars from the fields of politics, industry and education to share keynote speeches on “Eliminating Employment Discrimination in Hong Kong: Towards a Harmonious Workplace”.

 

The HKSAR Government has formulated anti-discrimination ordinances to eliminate discriminative acts and promote equal opportunities. However, the problem of discrimination continues to linger in society. In 2012, the Equal Opportunities Commission handled more than 900 complaint cases of which over 75 per cent were related to discrimination at work. As the general public becomes more aware of the problem of discrimination, employers, human resources practitioners and policymakers should be more active in securing equal opportunities in order to establish a harmonious workplace.

 

The five speakers were Dr. York Chow, Chairperson, Equal Opportunities Commission; The Hon. Chan Yuen-han, Legislative Councillor, HKSAR; Mr. Francis Mok, President, Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management; Ms. Amanda Yik, Senior Programme Manager, Community Business; and Professor Randy Chiu, Director, Centre for Human Resources Strategy and Development, HKBU. At the forum, they elaborated on discrimination in the workplace and its causes from different angles and identified loopholes in the existing discrimination ordinances and cases of abuse. In addition, potential areas of discrimination in the workplace, such as age, religious belief, sexual orientation, political stance, immigration status, and the ways in which a discrimination-free workplace could be established were also discussed at the forum.