Lecturer in Hong Kong sues over ‘hostile’ response to harassment complaint
Ana Alias Martinez alleges her contract at HKUST was not renewed due to her complaints against male colleague
A Spanish language lecturer at a university in Hong Kong is suing her boss and the tertiary education institution after her contract renewal was allegedly rejected due to her complaints about workplace harassment.
A writ filed to the District Court showed Ana Alias Martinez was seeking unspecified damages for emotional distress, reputational harm and financial losses.
She accused her supervisor of becoming hostile and opting against renewing her employment contract after she made a harassment complaint last year.
The plaintiff joined the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2004 as a part-time Spanish language instructor at the institution’s centre for language education. She became a full-time lecturer in 2021.
She said she had no “disciplinary warnings, complaints or negative performance reviews” during her time at the university.
According to the writ filed on Friday last week, the dispute could be traced back to September 2024, when the lecturer lodged a workplace harassment complaint against a male colleague.