As part of Hong Kong’s efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government proposes to amend the Employment Ordinance to address employment-related issues when implementing the anti-epidemic measures.

In this article, we will look at the proposed amendments and what other countries are doing to grapple with the effects of the pandemic.

Key proposed amendments to the Employment Ordinance of Hong Kong

The Government proposed amendments to the Employment Ordinance on 25 February 2022. The key amendments include:

1. If an employee is subject to any restriction on movement imposed under the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance (“Affected Employee”) for a day, such day will count as a sick day;
2. sickness allowance is payable to the Affected Employee in certain circumstances;
3. it is not a valid reason to dismiss an employee or vary the terms of his/ her employment contract on the ground that he/ she is an Affected Employee; and
4. it is a valid reason to dismiss an employee (other than an employee in one of certain specific categories) or vary his/ her employment contract if he/ she refuses to produce vaccination proof of COVID-19 vaccine recognised by the Government if required by the employer. Please refer to https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/pdf/list _of_recognised_covid19_vaccines.pdf for a list of vaccines recognised by the Government.

One target group underlying the amendments is the employees who are not able to attend to work due to the prevailing legal requirements....

Read Full Story: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=ae300dc7-8feb-478b-8a61-67d59a...