Chinese companies caught ordering illegal pregnancy tests for female job seekers

Prosecutors in an eastern Chinese city have sued 16 companies that required women to take pregnancy tests before being hired.

The Tongzhou district procuratorate in Nantong, a city in Jiangsu province, began investigating the case after being notified earlier this year, the official Procuratorial Daily reported Monday.

After the investigation was completed, prosecutors contacted the local human resources and social security office, which then warned the companies and hospitals about their behavior.

The report did not specify whether fines were imposed, but companies can be fined up to 50,000 yuan ($6,879) for gender discrimination if they refuse to correct their behavior.

Two hospitals and a physical examination center were also involved in the investigation, which found that 168 pregnancy tests were performed on job applicants for 16 companies.

The hospitals said the affected women were not given written warnings that the tests would be carried out, but instead were given deliberately vague verbal warnings.

However, prosecutors said the companies’ hiring and employee insurance records suggested the women were tested to see if they were pregnant, adding that in at least one case, a woman who was expecting a baby was not hired.

The woman was eventually hired and received compensation after the company was notified about her behavior.

“We can assume from this evidence that pregnancy tests were required by these companies and that they violated women’s right to equal employment opportunity,” prosecutors said.

The country’s law explicitly prohibits companies from conducting pregnancy tests as part of pre-employment medical exams, 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 maternity leave of up to six months.

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, such as not paying full wages to women on maternity leave.

According to a study carried out last year by the Inspection Squad for Workplace Gender Discrimination, a volunteer group that tries to improve gender equality in the workplace, men have a significant advantage over women when applying for government jobs.

According to the report, a number of positions in the national civil service were illegally designated as reserved for men or women. Out of nearly 40,000 jobs, 10,981 were reserved for men, while only 7,550 were reserved for women.

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