No Place For Pregnancy Discrimination

A Hong Kong employee dismissed via WeChat while in hospital has been awarded substantial damages for pregnancy discrimination.

The claimant was a former employee of a logistics company. Between 2007 and 2011, she was employed by affiliated companies within the same group. From April 2011, she began working for the company under successive yearly contracts. Whilst employed by the company, she received recognition for and positive appraisals of her work. She was also awarded an end-of-year bonus each year during the period from 2011 to 2016.

In early March 2017, the company merged three of its business units into one. The claimant headed this new integrated unit as well as the sales department. Shortly after the integration, the claimant became pregnant and informed the company of this. The following month, the company employed a new member of the sales department with the same responsibilities as the claimant.