Prosecutors in an eastern Chinese city have sued 16 companies that asked women to go through pregnancy tests before they were hired.
The Tongzhou district procuratorate in Nantong, a city in Jiangsu province, began investigating the matter after being tipped off earlier this year, the official Procuratorial Daily reported on Monday.
After the investigation had finished, prosecutors contacted the local bureau of human resources and social security, which then warned the companies and hospitals about their behaviour.
The article did not say whether any fines had been issued, but companies can be fined up to 50,000 yuan (US$6,900) for sex discrimination if they refuse to correct their behaviour.
Two hospitals and a physical exam centre were also caught up in the investigation, which found that 168 pregnancy tests had been carried out on job applicants on behalf of 16 companies.
The hospitals said that the women affected had not been given a written warning that the tests would be carried out, but were instead given deliberately vague oral warnings.
However, prosecutors said that the companies’ recruitment and staff insurance records suggested the women had been tested to see if they were pregnant, adding that in at least one case a woman who was found to be expecting a baby was not hired.
The woman was eventually hired and given compensation after the company was warned about its behaviour.
“We can speculate from this evidence that the pregnancy tests were required by these companies, and it had violated women’s rights to equal work opportunities,” the prosecutors said.
The country’s law explicitly bans firms from carrying out pregnancy tests as part of pre-employment physical examinations but many employers are concerned about the cost of maternity benefits.
The law varies from province to province, but new mothers in China are entitled to up to six months’ maternity leave.
Other forms of discrimination, such as expressing a preference for hiring men or asking women about their marital status, are also illegal.
But many companies are suspected of discriminating against women in less obvious ways, including not paying salaries in full when women are on maternity leave.
24:07
Why China’s population crisis has already begun
Why China’s population crisis has already begun
According to research last year by the Inspection Squad for Workplace Gender Discrimination, a group of volunteers who have been trying to improve workplace gender equality, men have a significant advantage over women when applying for government jobs.
