Helper forced to take pregnancy test wins sexual discrimination case against Hong Kong employer
Judge wrote that ‘whether a female employee is pregnant is a private matter about which the employer has no right to know’
An Indonesian domestic worker has won a sexual discrimination claim against her former employer after claiming she had been forced to take a pregnancy test by urinating in a potty.
In a judgment handed down on Thursday, District Court Judge Lee Wan-tang said that although Waliyah stopped short of proving she was forced to take a “mandatory” test – and that even she wanted to know the result – it was still “a private matter”.
Accepting the argument of the helper’s lawyers, Lee wrote “whether a female employee is pregnant is a private matter about which the employer has no right to know”.
He also said by asking her helper to undergo a pregnancy test, her employer Chan Man-hong subjected her to “less favourable treatment” based on her gender.
“A male employee would not be asked to take such a test and to disclose his private information to the employer,” he wrote.
Waliyah lodged her claim for compensation in 2015under the Sexual Discrimination Ordinance, claiming that she was forced to urinate for a test in 2013 by Chan and Chan’s husband Terence Yip Hoi-sun. She also sued them for their subsequent dismissal.
Chan, a mother of one, was the only one who attended the trial, as the court failed to contact her former husband after they separated.