Cantonese slang ‘gweilo’ not racist, judge rules in dismissing British engineer’s HK$1 million discrimination lawsuit
- Francis William Haden claimed he was the victim of prejudice when colleagues at Leighton Contractors (Asia) left him out of meetings and email chains
- But District Court judge rules no basis existed to suggest use of the word in the workplace must entail racial hostility and Leighton had “reasonable” grounds to sack Haden
A Hong Kong court has dismissed a HK$1 million (US$128,300) discrimination claim by a British engineer who complained about being called a gweilo and excluded from a tunnel construction project after finding his poor work relationship with colleagues was the real reason he lost his job.
The District Court on Friday ruled against Francis William Haden in an equal opportunity action that shed light on the use of the Cantonese slang. Gweilo, which translates to “ghost man”, is sometimes used disparagingly to mean “foreign devil”, but the widespread use of the word in Hong Kong is generally considered benign.
The judge found that no basis existed to suggest the use of the word in the workplace must entail racial hostility and the term would not necessarily carry a derogatory meaning.
Haden, who also has Australia citizenship, filed the lawsuit in 2018 to seek damages and a written apology from Leighton Contractors (Asia) for alleged violation of the Race Discrimination Ordinance, after he was sacked the previous year.
The blasting specialist was appointed a team leader by the joint venture between Leighton and China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong) in a 2016 tunnel project to bridge Tseung Kwan O and Lam Tin. The 2.2km underpass is expected to be completed sometime in the middle of this year.
Haden said he had been made to feel “unwelcome and frozen out” in meetings and from updates between August 2016 and February 2017 because he was not Chinese.
He recounted an occasion where a senior member of the China State team said he did not want non-Chinese engineers. He also quoted a Leighton employee, who claimed that China State workers had grumbled about the large number of “gweilos” at work. He argued the expression displayed general and underlying hostility towards expats.