Workplace equality disputes in China can arise before hiring, during employment or at termination. The applicable rules are spread across employment, civil, women’s-rights, disability, personal-information and local legislation rather than one comprehensive discrimination statute.
Employers should identify the challenged criterion or conduct, the employment decision, comparators, written policy, decision-makers and evidence. Sexual-harassment complaints require an immediate safety and retaliation assessment alongside a fair, confidential and documented investigation.
Subject to editorial and legal review. National rules establish core protections, but local regulations and judicial practice can materially affect claims, procedures and remedies. Review the rules for each work location.
Map the legal protection
Identify whether the issue concerns sex, ethnicity, race, religion, disability, infectious-disease carrier status, rural origin, pregnancy, marriage or childbirth, sexual harassment, personality rights, personal information or another protected interest. Avoid assuming that every distinction is lawful merely because it is absent from a single statutory list.
Recruitment and job advertising
Review job descriptions, advertisements, screening questions, algorithms, interview notes, medical examinations and rejection reasons. The Employment Promotion Law requires equal opportunity and fair conditions and prohibits employment discrimination. Women’s-rights rules restrict sex-based hiring exclusions and inquiries about marriage or childbirth except where a lawful occupational restriction applies.
Employment decisions and equal treatment
Audit allocation of work, probation, training, pay, promotion, performance ratings, benefits, leave, discipline, redundancy and termination. Record the legitimate job-related criteria, how they were applied and the comparator population. Disability rules also address equal treatment and appropriate working conditions.
Sexual harassment
The Civil Code prohibits sexual harassment against another person’s will through words, text, images, physical conduct or other means. Agencies, enterprises, schools and other organisations must take reasonable prevention, complaint-handling, investigation and response measures, especially where authority or dependency can be exploited.
Build a prevention system
Adopt a clear policy with examples, reporting channels, emergency measures, confidentiality expectations, non-retaliation rules, investigation steps and proportionate consequences. Train managers and investigators, offer more than one complaint channel, manage third-party conduct, and retain evidence consistently. A policy without accessible reporting or real enforcement is not sufficient.
Immediate complaint response
Assess safety, reporting lines, contact restrictions, leave, workplace separation and evidence preservation without presuming an outcome. A temporary measure should be necessary and proportionate and should not punish the complainant. Explain the process, support options, confidentiality limits and protection against retaliation.
Conduct a fair investigation
Define allegations and applicable rules; select an impartial investigator; interview the complainant, respondent and witnesses separately; preserve messages, recordings, access records and contemporaneous documents; and give the respondent a meaningful opportunity to answer. Apply a stated evidentiary standard and distinguish substantiated facts from credibility assessments and unresolved conflicts.
Privacy, recordings and data
Collect only information necessary for the investigation and control access, retention, transfer and disclosure. Sensitive personal information, medical data and cross-border reporting may trigger heightened requirements. Do not promise absolute confidentiality. Assess the lawfulness and evidentiary weight of recordings rather than encouraging covert or intrusive collection.
Discipline and employment action
Link any warning, transfer, demotion or termination to lawfully adopted and communicated rules, proven conduct, consistent treatment and the applicable statutory ground. Consult the employee representative body or union where required. Serious harassment may justify termination, but weak procedure or unsupported findings can create a separate wrongful-termination dispute.
Claims, remedies and retaliation
Possible routes include an internal complaint, labour-authority or other administrative complaint, labour arbitration, civil litigation or personality-rights claim. The correct route depends on the defendant and remedy. Preserve evidence of later schedule, evaluation, compensation, exclusion or termination decisions because retaliation allegations often arise after the original complaint.
Working-file checklist
- Challenged criterion, conduct and employment decision.
- Job criteria, comparators and decision-maker record.
- Applicable national and local protections.
- Policy adoption, communication and training evidence.
- Complaint intake and immediate-risk assessment.
- Messages, recordings, access logs and witness list.
- Investigation plan, interviews and findings matrix.
- Privacy, retention and cross-border data plan.
- Discipline, consistency and employee-representative process.
- Retaliation monitoring, deadlines and remedy analysis.
Official sources
- National People’s Congress: Employment Promotion Law
- National People’s Congress database: Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests
- Supreme People’s Court: workplace sexual-harassment typical case
- State Administration for Market Regulation: Law on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities
- State Council: Regulation on Employment of Persons with Disabilities
Law checked: September 11, 2026. Current national law, local rules, workplace policies and case-specific procedure control.
