The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) launched a major media initiative today (27 May 2021), unveiling its latest TV and radio Announcements in the Public Interest (APIs) titled “Create a Harmonious Workplace - Report and End Harassment” to raise awareness of the protection against sexual harassment, disability harassment and racial harassment in common workplaces under the Sex Discrimination Ordinance (SDO), Disability Discrimination Ordinance (DDO) and Race Discrimination Ordinance (RDO) respectively.

Under the Ordinances, it is unlawful for a workplace participant to subject another workplace participant to sexual, disability or racial harassment at the workplace where they both work or attend. Workplace participants are defined to include employers, employees, interns, volunteers, partners in a firm, contract workers and their principals, as well as commission agents and their principals.

In practice, examples of common workplaces may include department stores where salespersons employed by different brands work, fundraising booths manned by NGO workers and volunteers, or auto trade shows attended by venue staff and models, etc.

Mr Ricky CHU Man-kin, Chairperson of the EOC said, "We believe with the launching of our new APIs, more people will understand the enhanced protection from sexual, disability and racial harassment for people who work in a common workplace under the Ordinances, even when there is no employment or other similar work relationships. This will be particularly important for the many people who do voluntary work or internships in Hong Kong.”

After the enactment of the Discrimination Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2020 on 19 June 2020, the Ordinance amended the SDO, DDO and RDO to provide new protection from sexual, disability and racial harassment in common workplaces, even when there is no employment or other similar work relationships.

In the TV API, three scenarios including an intern being sexually harassed by her boss, an employee of a charitable organisation making derogatory remarks about a voluntary worker and his disability, and a consignment promoter making sarcastic comments about the race of a consignment promoter from another company in a large retail shop are used to illustrate the possible incidents of sexual harassment, disability harassment and racial harassment in common workplaces. 

Staring from today, the TV and radio APIs can be watched/listened on various channels of free TV, Pay TV and RTHK TV as well as various channels of three radio stations, namely RTHK, Commercial Radio and Metro Broadcast. The TV APIs have been uploaded onto the EOC website and the EOC YouTube channel, Facebook and LinkedIn pages. The videos are available in Cantonese, Putonghua and English with sign language interpretation. Members of the public can watch and share the videos through the above channels.

To know more about how the law defines sexual, disability and racial harassment, members of the public can make reference to the leaflet on protection against sexual, disability and racial harassment in common workplaces and the poster of the API. The leaflets are also available in other languages in the EOC website.
    
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Equal Opportunities Commission
27 May 2021