In order to raise the awareness of CityU academic and administrative staff on gender equality and workplace sexual harassment, CityU held an on-campus workshop about “Gender Equality and Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace” on May 14. Attorney Ms. Si Lai Kuan was specially invited as the speaker to share Macau’s relevant laws and regulations to ensure workplace gender equality, as well as the prevention and methods of handling sexual harassment cases at work.
Macau SAR Government pays high attention to Gender Equality and Sexual Harassment in recent years. They also encourage Macau Higher Education Institutions to put effort on promoting workplace gender equality and the prevention of workplace sexual harassment in campus. In light of that, CityU hopes to convey the important message of securing gender equality in the work environment and the prevention of workplace sexual harassment through this workshop, and eventually to establish a good workplace culture and working environment for our staff. CityU hopes our staffs can learn more about Macau’s current laws and regulations, the prevention and handling of misconduct from professional lawyer through this workshop.
In the workshop, Attorney Ms. Si Lai Kuan introduced the basic definition of gender equality specified in current international conventions, Macau Basic Law, Macau Labor Relations Law, and emphasized that male and female employees should be treated equally in terms of the right to equal opportunities and compensation, as well as legal protection. Attorney Si added, “Employees should actively communicate with employers and participate in relevant training in order to have better understanding of sexual harassment, as well as the complaint channels offer by the company internally.”
Besides sharing some cases on sexual harassment in Macau, Attorney Si pointed out the key element to prevent sexual harassment in workplace: “employers and employees must work together, cultivate a better working environment for employees to prevent sexual harassment at work. For example, employers have the responsibility to formulate relevant internal policies and establish channels and procedures for complaints about sexual harassment.” At the end of the workshop, the head of Human Resources Office took this opportunity to reiterate the existing complaint mechanism and complaint channels in CityU. Colleagues who have attended the workshop also expressed their gratitude to the university for organizing such meaningful and useful workshop.
The City University of Macau greatly values personnel training and development, and will continue to uphold the “people-oriented” principle as its commitment to cultivating more local talents for social development. CityU will organize different workshops in the future for staff development outside working hours.
