The Court of First Instance has provided timely guidance on managing overlapping employment disputes that straddle the Labour Tribunal and the High Court. In Vantage Capital Markets HK Limited v Salles Antoine Paul Benjamin [2025] HKCFI 3516, Chan J dismissed an employee’s application for leave to appeal against a Labour Tribunal decision transferring both the employer’s claim and the employee’s counterclaim to the High Court. The judgment clarifies the scope of the Labour Tribunal’s transfer power under the Labour Tribunal Ordinance (LTO), the limits of the Employment Ordinance (EO) wage-deduction protections at the jurisdictional stage, and the court’s preference for coherent case management over fragmented proceedings. It has practical implications for practitioners planning parallel or sequential proceedings.
Vantage Capital Markets HK Limited employed Mr Salles as Global Head of MSCI Trading and Head of the Asia Ex-Japan Delta One Desk under a March 2020 agreement. Following an internal investigation into alleged proprietary “rogue trading” in March 2024, the employer terminated his contract on 19 April 2024, effective 30 September 2024.
Two sets of proceedings followed, arising from substantially the same facts but under different legal frameworks. In August 2024 the employer commenced a Labour Tribunal claim for roughly HK$35 million, including alleged trading losses, bonus overpayments, and wages in lieu of notice. The employee counterclaimed for...
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