Firms oppose equality watchdog's plan to grant benefits to civil partners

Forty small and medium-sized firms are threatening to scrap or cut their staff's dependent care benefits if the government approves the equality watchdog's plan to grant de facto couples entitlement to employment and health benefits.

Concern groups such as Pro-Family Hong Kong and Ban Gay Marriage yesterday slammed the Equal Opportunities Commission for, among other things, proposing to give workers' cohabiting partners dependent care benefits without first seeking corporate views on the plan.

The proposal is one of those the commission has put forward for a three-month public consultation that began on July 8, that aims to widen the definition of marital status to include couples in cohabitation.

"Such a proposal, if passed, would have a crushing effect on employers, who would be forced to give … benefits for fear of prosecution, even if they are against cohabitation," Family School Sodo Concern Group convenor Roger Wong Wai-ming said.

De facto relationships - also known as civil unions or common-law partnerships in some countries - refer to the cohabitation status of both heterosexual and homosexual couples.

The concern groups yesterday said they had contacted about six chambers of commerce, including the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and the Hong Kong General Chamber of Small and Medium Business, and that 40 small and medium-sized companies so far had voiced their opposition to the equality watchdog's proposal.