On 11 April 2025, the Hong Kong government published the Employment (Amendment) Bill 2025 ("Bill") which proposes to amend the Employment Ordinance ("EO") to change the definition of "continuous contract".
Currently, under the EO, "continuous contract" is defined as employment by the same employer for 4 or more consecutive weeks, with at least 18 hours worked each week. This is what is commonly referred to as the "418 requirement".
The EO provides basic protection to all employees, but those who satisfy the 418 requirement are eligible to enjoy additional benefits, such as statutory holiday pay, statutory annual leave, statutory maternity and paternity leave, statutory sickness allowance, and statutory severance / long service payment.
The Bill seeks to reform the 418 requirement, which has been an important concept underpinning Hong Kong employment law and has been a longstanding determinator of eligibility for additional statutory employment benefits.
The Bill proposes two main changes:
1. Reducing the number of weekly working hours required for an employment contract to qualify as a "continuous contract" from 18 hours to 17 hours.
2. Permitting the use of aggregate working hours over a 4-week period as an alternative way to satisfy the "continuous contract" requirement. Under this new aggregate working hours concept, so long as an employee has worked for an aggregate of 68 hours or more over a 4-week period (which should include the...
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