Hong Kong Ordinances

FAMILY STATUS DISCRIMINATION ORDINANCE - SECT 8

Discrimination against applicants and employees

Adaptation amendments retroactively made - see 66 of 1999 s. 3 PART III

DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT FIELD

Discrimination by employers

(1) It is unlawful for a person ("the employer"), in relation to employment by
him at an establishment in Hong Kong, to discriminate against a person who has
family status-

   (a)  in the arrangements the employer makes for the purpose of determining
        who should be offered that employment;

   (b)  in the terms on which the employer offers that other person
        employment; or

   (c)  by refusing or deliberately omitting to offer that other person that
        employment.

(2) It is unlawful for the employer, in the case of a person who has
family status employed by him at an establishment in Hong Kong, to
discriminate against that person-

   (a)  in the way he affords that person access to opportunities for
        promotion, transfer or training, or to any other benefits, facilities
        or services, or by refusing or deliberately omitting to afford him
        access to them;

   (b)  in the terms of employment he affords that person; or

   (c)  by dismissing that person or subjecting him to any other detriment.

(3) Subsections (1) and (2) shall not apply to employment where the number of
persons employed by the employer, added to the number employed by any
associated employers of his, does not exceed 5 (disregarding any persons
employed for the purposes of a private home).

(4) Nothing in subsection (1) or (2) renders it unlawful for an employer to
restrict the employment of a person if-

   (a)  that person is an immediate family member of an employee of the 
        employer; or

   (b)  that person is an immediate family member of an employee of another
        employer, and the first-mentioned employer can demonstrate, after
        making reasonable enquiries, that there is a significant likelihood of
        collusion between that person and the employee which would result in
        damage to the business of the first-mentioned employer.

(5) Subsection (2) shall not apply to benefits, facilities or services of any
description if the employer is concerned with the provision (for payment or
not) of benefits, facilities or services of that description to the public
comprising the person concerned, unless-

   (a)  that provision differs in a material respect from the provision of the
        benefits, facilities or services by the employer to his employees; or

   (b)  the benefits, facilities or services relate to training.

(6) Subsection (3) shall expire on the 3rd anniversary of the day on which
this Ordinance is enacted.

(7) For the purposes of subsection (3), 2 employers are to be treated as
associated if one is a company of which the other (directly or indirectly) has
control or if both are companies of which a third person

(directly or indirectly) has control.

(8) The Chief Executive in Council may, by notice in the Gazette- (Amended 66
of 1999 s. 3)

   (a)  amend subsection (3) by substituting another number for the last
        number appearing in that subsection;

   (b)  amend subsection (6) by substituting another anniversary for the
        anniversary appearing in that subsection.

(9) Subsection (1)(b) or (2)(b) shall not apply to any term of employment
under which an employer affords, or omits to afford, any
immediate family member of the person concerned direct or indirect access to
benefits, facilities or services. (Added 40 of 2000 s. 2)

(10) Subsection (2)(a) or (c) shall not apply to any arrangement under which
an employer affords, or omits to afford, any immediate family  member of the
person concerned direct or indirect access to benefits, facilities or
services. (Added 40 of 2000 s. 2)