20 percent of female workers in Hong Kong say they have been sexually harassed at work, SCMP reports.
The responses emerged from a survey by the equal-rights watchdog, which also found that most of the victims came from groups long regarded as vulnerable, including retail, catering, health care and nursing workers.
Of 472 respondents to the commission's survey, 19 per cent said they had been victims of sexual harassment before, while 6 per cent said they had witnessed it in the past 12 months.
Seventy per cent of the victims said they had taken further action against the offenders, but the rest did not.
The highest proportion of offenders - 39 per cent - were colleagues of the same rank, followed by customers, at 28 per cent. Other harassers were staff senior and junior to victims.
"Sexual harassment remains a common occurrence in the workplace," John Tse, Equal Opportunities Commission's policy and research committee convenor said. "The data reflects that sexual harassment is a serious issue in Hong Kong. It means some people are facing it on a daily basis."
This month, Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific was accused of leaving its staff open to sexual harassment with "revealing" new uniforms. In April, Phoenix TV, one of the city's biggest private broadcasters, was sued by former employees for employing an executive for over a decade despite being aware of sexual harassment allegations against him.
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