One in five women sexually harassed at work: survey
One-fifth of female workers say they have been sexually harassed at work, but almost a third of these did nothing about it.
One-fifth of female workers say they have been sexually harassed at work, but almost a third of these did nothing about it.
The responses emerged from a survey by the equal-rights watchdog, which also found that most of the victims came from groups long regarded as vulnerable, including retail, catering, health care and nursing workers.
"Sexual harassment remains a common occurrence in the workplace," convenor of the Equal Opportunities Commission's policy and research committee John Tse Wing-ling said yesterday.
"The data reflects that sexual harassment is a serious issue in Hong Kong. It means some people are facing it on a daily basis."
Of 472 respondents to the commission's survey, 19 per cent said they had been victims of sexual harassment before, while 6 per cent said they had witnessed it in the past 12 months.
Seventy per cent of the victims said they had taken further action against the offenders, but the rest did not.
The highest proportion of offenders - 39 per cent - were colleagues of the same rank, followed by customers, at 28 per cent. Other harassers were staff senior and junior to victims.