In June 2022, two major amendments to the employment legislation of Hong Kong SAR were passed by the Legislative Council.
Employment & Retirement Schemes Legislation (Offsetting Arrangement) (Amendment) Bill 2022
On 9 June 2022, the Hong Kong Legislative Council passed the Employment & Retirement Schemes Legislation (Offsetting Arrangement) (Amendment) Bill 2022. When this comes into effect, the statutory right of an employer to offset mandatory contributions to a Mandatory Provident Fund scheme or an MPF-exempted Occupational Retirement scheme against statutory severance payment / long service payment payable to an employee on termination of employment will be abolished. The Abolition of Offset Bill will come into force on the “transition” date to be appointed, currently expected to be in 2025.
We have highlighted various features of the Abolition of Offset Bill (in its draft form) in our alert on 24 February 2022, which can be accessed here. In this alert, we outline a few additional features of the Abolition of Offset Bill and the supporting measures to be implemented along with it.
The Employment (Amendment) Bill 2022
On 17 June 2022, the Hong Kong Legislative Council passed the Employment (Amendment) Bill 2022 and the Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2022 (Amendment Ordinance) took effect. The Amended EO aims at strengthening the protection of the employment rights and benefits of employees when they are absent from work due to their compliance with specific anti-epidemic requirements and encouraging employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.
For further information, please contact:
Samantha Cornelius, Linklaters
samantha.cornelius@linklaters.com
