A business guild has issued the city's first guidelines for employers on how best to accommodate their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members of staff.
The 50-page guide, issued by Community Business in June, recommends firms provide same-sex partners of employees with the same benefits the spouses of other staff receive.
Community Business founder Shalini Mahtani said a 'small percentage of companies' in the city already have policies that address their LGBT staff, including IBM, Goldman Sachs and the British Council.
But some of the biggest firms, including the MTR Corp and CLP Power, both members of Community Business, say they have no plans to change their employment policies, under which only 'legal spouses of staff' are entitled to company benefits such as medical coverage.
Goldman Sachs - which sponsored the guide, titled 'Creating inclusive workplaces for LGBT employees' - said more than 5 per cent of its 1,000 Hong Kong staff identified themselves as members of the LGBT community in a confidential survey by the company. Goldman said it would send out e-mails annually to all staff reminding them of LGBT-specific benefits, in particular those available to employees and partners regardless of their gender or marital status.
The British Council said it provided benefits to non-married partners of its staff regardless of the gender of the partners.