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A woman who had a job offer withdrawn because she was pregnant won a lawsuit yesterday for sexual discrimination.

Social worker Yuen Wai-han will be paid damages by the elderly home which offered her a job as a supervisor and then withdrew the offer after she had resigned from her previous job.

District Court Judge Wesley Wong Wing-fai ruled that Ms Yuen's pregnancy was at least one of the reasons South Elderly Affairs Limited terminated a job offer.

Ruling that the company had breached the Sexual Discrimination Ordinance, Judge Wong said the home subsequently employed a man for the job.

Ms Yuen, 26, was awarded damages, yet to be assessed, from the company for loss of income and injured feelings.

She had earlier told the court she was offered the job as a supervisor on June 10, 2000, at a salary of $15,000 - $5,000 more than her previous job.

However, the offer was withdrawn two days later, just after she resigned from her then employer - another old people's home.

Ms Yuen, a registered social worker, remained unemployed until November that year, one month after she gave birth to her child.

She said she was told by South Elderly Affairs that the job offer had been withdrawn due to her pregnancy.

Judge Wong also accepted, however, the defendant's claim that Ms Yuen lacked experience in social welfare procedures and that the job required looking after elderly people with disabilities and Ms Yuen would not be suitable for the post.

The judge said the company's manager was at first eager to hire Ms Yuen because of her qualifications, without consulting personnel officials to learn that she would require 10 weeks maternity leave.

An Equal Opportunities Commission officer who handled the complaint told the court she understood the company had rescinded the offer because Ms Yuen was pregnant.

Barrister James Collins, representing the employer, had argued the offer was withdrawn because Ms Yuen was not familiar with the work.

Ms Yuen began working for her former employer in July 1999 and although she carried the title of supervisor, she was inexperienced, Mr Collins argued.

The company was aware of Ms Yuen's pregnancy at the time the offer was made and the withdrawal had nothing to do with that, he said.

Commission chairwoman Anna Wu Hung-yuk said: 'The commission receives a large number of pregnancy-related complaints every year.

'Although close to half of the workforce is now comprised of women, the fact remains that many of them still face discrimination during and after their pregnancies. In Ms Yuen's case, she was discriminated against before she even started her job.'



Damages order on pregnancy job loss