Around 100 agency heads and representatives of the social service sector attended the seminar on anti-sexual harassment last Thursday (18 August 2016). The seminar, jointly organised by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), aimed to promote the message of preventing sexual harassment to the social service sector, and to equip the organisations concerned with the skills to formulate their own policy on preventing sexual harassment and to handle related complaints.

Prof. Alfred CHAN Cheung-ming, Chairperson of the EOC said, “We are very happy to see the active participation of the social service sector in the seminar which demonstrates their determination in combating sexual harassment.”

“The EOC has received over 200 complaints on sexual harassment in the past three years and a few hundred enquiries on sexual harassment every year. These figures may only be the tip of the iceberg as some victims do not want to disclose their unhappy experiences,” Prof. Chan continued.

The EOC holds great concern about sexual harassment in different sectors and had conducted questionnaire surveys on sexual harassment for sports, education and business sectors, and among foreign domestic workers, flight attendants and workers for service industries to understand more about the prevalence of sexual harassment in these sectors. The EOC facilitates the organisations to develop their anti-sexual harassment policies and provide them with relevant training so that sexual harassment cases could be avoided.

Dr. John FUNG, Business Director, Sector & Capacity Development of the HKCSS delivered his opening remarks. During the seminar, Mr. CHONG Yiu-kwong, Co-opted Member of Policy, Research and Training Committee of the EOC and Dr. Ferrick CHU, Director of Policy, Research & Training of the EOC explained the ways of formulating an effective anti-sexual harassment policy, as well as the definition of sexual harassment and the related legal provisions respectively. Representatives from the social service sector also shared their experiences in formulating anti-sexual harassment policies and handling related complaints. Among them were Ms. Tracy PUN, Human Resources Manager and Mr. Patrick WONG, Service Quality Manager of Rehabilitation Services from St. James’ Settlement; Ms. Fiona YUEN, Supervisor and Mr. Ivan KWOK, Unit-in-Charge from Hong Kong Young Women’s Christian Association.

The EOC has endeavoured to promote anti-sexual harassment messages to different sectors throughout the years. Various training and publicity materials including leaflets, training kits, guidebooks and policy frameworks have been produced which promote the importance of preventing sexual harassment and help organisations formulate a clear and comprehensive policy on the prevention of sexual harassment, thus providing safe working environment to everyone.

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) co-organised a seminar to promote anti-sexual harassment messages to the social service sector. Prof. Alfred CHAN Cheung-ming, the EOC Chairperson (fourth left); Mr. CHONG Yiu-kwong, Co-opted Member of Policy, Research and Training Committee of the EOC (second left); Dr. Ferrick CHU, Director of Policy, Research & Training of the EOC (first left); and Dr. John FUNG, Business Director, Sector & Capacity Development of the HKCSS (third left) attended the seminar.

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Equal Opportunities Commission
22 August 2016