The Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2022 (Commencement) Notice was published on 14 April 2023 and will take effect on 16 June 2023 to repeal the provisions under the Employment Ordinance (“EO”) relating to legitimate COVID-19 vaccination request provisions (“Vaccination Provisions”).
The Vaccination Provisions were added to the EO pursuant to the Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2022 (“Amendment Ordinance”)which took effect on 17 June 2022. The relevant provisions provided that the dismissal of an employee for failure to comply with a legitimate COVID-19 vaccination request, such as an employee’s refusal to provide proof of vaccination upon the employer’s request, would not be considered as unreasonable dismissal.
All vaccination requests made after 16 June 2023 will cease to have effect. If employees fail to comply with the vaccination requests, it will no longer be a valid reason to dismiss the employee or vary the terms of the employment contract.
Employers are reminded to pay attention to the effective date and review their existing policies concerning vaccinations. Failure to take notice may potentially lead to the employee claiming for remedies for unreasonable dismissal or unreasonable variation of their employment contract. Potential discrimination issues may also arise if employers treat unvaccinated employees unfairly / refuse to hire unvaccinated employees.
For further information, please contact:
Felda Yeung, Partner, Gall
feldayeung@gallhk.com
