In Hong Kong, age discrimination is the most common type of workplace discrimination. The Equal Opportunities Commission (“EOC”) instigated a study last year in which 18 percent of all survey respondents (2,008 in total) claimed that they had experienced some form of discrimination at work and/or in searching for work. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of this sub-group claimed that they had specifically encountered age discrimination, especially when searching for work.
Unlike numerous jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and the European Union, Hong Kong’s anti-discrimination laws currently do not cover age discrimination in employment or any other context. The Labour Department has produced and updated a ‘Practical Guidelines for Employers on Eliminating Age Discrimination in Employment’ which does not have any legal effect. At the time of writing, the EOC is conducting a study into the feasibility of developing legislation on age discrimination in the workplace.