Hong Kong must end age discrimination in the workplace

York Chow says the government should raise public awareness and implement training programmes for older workers, while employers must do more to engage mature employees

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Published: 5:36pm, 7 Jan 2016Updated: 5:35pm, 7 Jan 2016

A key step to addressing this issue must be a mindset shift about mature workers and shedding old stereotypes about different ages, such as thinking of older people as frail or unable to learn new skills.

Some say age is just a number. Yet many will contend it is a number that matters a great deal in the Hong Kong workplace, including in the decision on whether a person should be hired, promoted or made redundant.

The Equal Opportunities Commission has just released the findings of our exploratory study on age discrimination in employment, which was launched in response to the growing public attention on this issue.

Clearly, one can no longer rely on age as an indicator of capability, performance or productivity

The results, based on a phone survey with 401 respondents as well as qualitative in-depth interviews with key stakeholders such as employers and legislators, reveal that age discrimination is occurring in employment.

More than one in three employed respondents have faced some form of age discrimination at work over the past five years, including by being paid lower salaries, denied advancement opportunities and targeted for redundancy in organisational restructuring exercises.

Mature workers, especially those aged 50 and above, report being particularly susceptible to age-discriminatory treatment.

Nearly one in four said they had been denied a promotion due to their age, compared with only 8 per cent of employed respondents below the age of 30 who made the same assertion.