Over half of Hong Kong teachers bullied at work in past six months, union poll finds
- Professional Teachers’ Union calls for legislation to protect educators, noting many are afraid to speak out or lack faith in complaint mechanisms
- Findings come just a month after a coroner ruled a schoolteacher was driven to suicide by her treatment at work
More than half the 1,200 Hong Kong teachers polled in a new survey said they had been bullied by colleagues in the past six months, although many were reluctant to speak out, prompting the city’s biggest educators’ union to call for legislation to better protect them.
The findings released by the Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU) on Tuesday also found that over 70 per cent of teachers lacked confidence in the ability of schools’ existing complaint mechanisms to appropriately handle their situations.
Teacher Lam Lai-tong’s death in March 2019 sparked a public outcry that led to headmistress Law Yuen-yee being sacked five months later, and educators and union leaders calling for changes in the complaint process.
“Workplace bullying is a serious problem at schools,” Fung Wai-wah, president of the 100,000-strong PTU, said at a press conference unveiling the study. “Under an imbalance of power, especially for temporary teachers or staff on [fixed-term] contracts, many are afraid to speak out even when they witness their colleagues being bullied.”
The survey, conducted between late February and early March, polled 1,283 educators, including 657 primary schoolteachers and 544 from secondary schools. A majority of the respondents were frontline teachers, though about a fifth were vice-principals or from the ranks of middle management.