Workplace pregnancy discrimination

My wife works in an administrative role at one of the major tertiary education institutions in HK. During her interview process last year, the hiring director expressed a concern that she might become pregnant, to which she said that she did not have immediate plans to start a family. It seemed highly inappropriate for for this to even come up, and it happens that she did in fact become pregnant this year. In the last few months, the way she has been treated by her boss and some co-workers has been bordering on outrageous. Her boss' demeanour has become quite cold, as though he is suffering her deception. When she notifies him of her occasional need to leave the office for medical appointments, he replies with pedantic emails reminding her to complete her work responsibilities. She is already working fairly long hours for a relatively low-paying position and has taken over several projects from two people who recently resigned. The boss told her at one point that he has assigned business travel to other people, out of consideration for her current condition. When she applied for several days of leave to take a holiday recently, he pulled her aside and said he was surprised that she was planning to travel for leisure when she was being spared the need to travel for business. He reluctantly approved the leave and told her not to mention to anyone that she was going on holiday, since it would raise eyebrows. Also apparently, there are several senior colleagues who openly grumble during staff meetings that it isn't fair that she gets special consideration just for being pregnant.


This seems like appalling behaviour for what is supposed to be an institution of higher learning. What are her rights in this type of situation? Realistically, this doesn't seem like a desirable work environment for the long term and I have suggested that she look for something while on maternity leave, or just resign.

what rights are you looking for? and where is the discrimination again?

Sorry, I'm having trouble finding sympathy here. Your wife shouldn't get special treatment for being pregnant. She should be treated just like every other employee within the confines of the labour law. Her boss has every right to be unhappy about the situation, there is nothing wrong with that.


If your boss is sparing your wife business travel (which he doesn't have to do), than yes, it is a bit off for her to travel for pleasure. It sounds to me like the boss is just trying to keep peace at the office and your wife expects to be treated like some queen. Sorry- that sounds harsh, but just my take.

Did your wife request that she be spared of business travel because of her pregnancy, or did her boss assign the trips to other staff members on his own initiative? If your wife did not ask for special treatment regarding the business travel, then the boss can hardly blame her or guilt her about a decision that he made on his own. As for the leave, is it your wife's annual leave days or extra (unpaid) leave, and when applying for it, did she specifically advertise that she will be travelling for pleasure during the leave? If it was annual leave (or actually even unpaid leave), I see no reason why your wife would have needed to give details how she plans to use the time off. For all the boss knows, she could well be staying at home, painting and preparing the baby's room!


Even though discremination because of pregnancy is illegal, I still symphatise with the employer. After all, they still have to pay 4/5 salary to the eployee on maternity leave, and either hire a replacement for her, or find another ways to get that person's workload distributed among remaining staff.


It seems your wife is not happy, and the boss is not happy, so it might be best for all if she finds another job to start after the child is born. Just don't milk the current employer of all the benefits related to maternity leave and then quit after just one week back to work!

I'm not a student of the law, but I believe employers are not permitted to ask job applicants if they intend to become pregnant. We just left it to nature and she happened to become pregnant, so does she owe it to her employer to resign or have an abortion (to ensure consistency with her response to the question illegally asked during her interview)? Secondly, my wife did not ask for any special treatment, so it's nice of the boss to show some consideration, but not so nice when he then goes and rubs it in her face and probably laments to other people in the office. Even worse is that some male staff whine like children during meetings about supposed unfairness, but the director of the place does not tell them that such public grumbling is unacceptable. Finally, the leave she took was her personal annual leave, which is her contractual benefit and not a favour granted by the boss. I don't see why he has any business passing opinion about what she does while on leave or telling her to keep it secret.


Under normal circumstances, I would just consider this an awful workplace that she should get away from. The fact that these people are public sector employees at an institution of higher learning makes the situation all the more outrageous and I think THEY should be exposed and reprimanded. It's sad to see that some people here don't even see a problem with the situation. If people have issues accepting pregnant women's rights, they should go make their career in a society where no such rights exist.

teryll your wife didn't "happen" to get pregnant...she got pregnant due to the choices you and her made.


Your wife's boss might be a jerk, but you still haven't provided any real issues here. Office gossip, complaining and politics happen at every job.

iwilltry, pregnant women are entitled to the full protection of the Hong Kong labour laws. Nothing more and nothing less. If you don't think the current laws are sufficient, you should take that up with the Hong Kong labour department, not the "boss" whose job it is to run a company.

At the end of the day, the law is the law and your wife is entitled to her maternity leave/allowance and also her annual leave. However, it doesn't mean that her employer has to be happy about the inconvenience it causes to him, or any other members of staff, with added work loads, or having to employ new members of staff to cover maternity leave.


I work in a company where many women have become pregnant over the past year or two, creating a major headache for my employer who has had to find 'temporary' staff to cover their maternity leave, as well as paying all the extra salaries on top of the maternity allowances.


It may not be legal to ask a woman during an interview if she's planning to get pregnant anytime soon (I have no idea?), but if he's previously encountered any of the above problems recently, he may simply be wary of the fact that he could be in that position ...


Don't get me wrong, I am a woman and I have, in the past, taken full advantage of maternity leave/allowance, but I do understand what a great inconvenience it can be for many employers.


Your wife is getting what she is entitled to, but you can't necessarily expect everyone else to be jumping for joy. As 'unattendedbag' says ... "Office gossip, complaining and politics happen at every job."

Employers are not allowed to ask such questions in the US when interviewing candidates. Same goes with age, religion, sexual preference, etc. If the company is a US entity doing business in a foreign juristiction, one could take it up with the home office.