The Complaint
Mr. Tsui, who has a permanent disability in his right hand, joined a large company as a clerk. In about a year's time he was assigned to act as an assistant officer and continued in this capacity for six years. His daily routine included data entry and preparing reports. He received good rating during the annual performance appraisals. When a vacancy for the assistant officer appeared, Mr. Tsui applied.
According to the company rule, he had to pass the English and Chinese typing test, to be allowed to sit for interview for the position. When Mr. Tsui received a letter inviting him to sit for the test, he wrote to them to consider his disability and make necessary accommodations. When he sat for the test, no measures were taken to accommodate his disability. He failed in the test and was therefore not granted an interview.
Mr. Tsui then lodged a complaint of discrimination on the ground of disability with the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).
What the EOC did
The case officer of the EOC tried to settle the case by proposing early conciliation. However, the respondent refused to accept Mr. Tsuiˇ¦s claim that he was discriminated against as they had applied the same rule to all applicants and also refused to compensate. The EOC then investigated the case and decided to go for conciliation since Mr. Tsui might have been indirectly discriminated against. The case was later settled through conciliation after the respondent agreed to exempt Mr. Tsui from the typing test and allow him to sit for the interview.
What the law says
The Disability Discrimination Ordinance (DDO) makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person with a disability by dismissing that person, or subjecting him to any other detriment, for example depriving the opportunities for promotion, transfer or training (DDO, Section 11). Discrimination may be direct or indirect. Direct discrimination in employment means treating an employee with a disability less favourably than another employee without disability. Indirect discrimination is often less obvious than direct discrimination. It means imposing the same requirement or condition, which is not justified or genuinely necessary, on everyone but doing so has an unfair effect on a particular group (e.g. persons with disabilities). In this case, Mr. Tsui was indirectly discriminated against because the company applied the same rule to him as those to other applicants despite him having a permanent disability and did not take measures to accommodate his disability.
Source: Equal Opportunities Commission
Updated: 15 September 2009
