Opinion | Hong Kong bosses must do much more to tackle sexual harassment at work
- At the heart of the problem is that sexual harassment often occurs in the context of a power imbalance, which can deter victims from speaking up
- Employers must have a clear anti-harassment policy and complaint-handling procedures, and give periodic awareness training
Imagine your boss cracking an offensive sexual joke in front of you, or a colleague caressing your hip in the office without your consent. Would you file a report?
The survey, which sampled more than 5,000 people aged 18-64, marked the city’s first-ever representative study on sexual harassment involving the general population rather than a specific industry or sector.
The most commonly reported form of workplace sexual harassment was sexually suggestive comments or jokes made in the victim’s presence (61.5 per cent). Some respondents had also been exposed to inappropriate physical contact (22.6 per cent), indecent emails or texts (14.6 per cent), and voyeurism or non-consensual taking of intimate images (8.5 per cent).
Alarmingly, almost half (46.1 per cent) of the victims who did not take any action thought that doing so “would be useless”. They also worried about being labelled a troublemaker (39.7 per cent) and jeopardising their relationship with the harassers (35 per cent).
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At the heart of the problem is that sexual harassment often occurs in the context of a power imbalance, which can deter victims from breaking the silence. The study indicated that there was a larger proportion of victims among interns (25.5 per cent) and contract workers (15.9 per cent), than permanent staff (11.4 per cent). Over 24 per cent of the harassers were the victim’s immediate supervisor or higher-ranked colleague.
