Employment Ordinance (Cap 57) Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 – What do they mean to you?

8 July 2021 | by LexisNexis Hong Kong

The Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 (“Amendment Ordinance”) took effect on 11 December 2020, which extends the statutory maternity leave by four weeks from ten weeks to fourteen weeks. The extra four weeks of maternity leave should be taken by the employee continuously after the ten weeks' maternity leave, if so entitled. The additional four weeks of statutory maternity leave is applicable to eligible female employees whose confinement occurs on or after the commencement date of the Amendment Ordinance.

The employee is entitled to extra four weeks of maternity leave pay under the Amendment Ordinance on the normal pay day, subject to a maximum amount of $80,000 per employee. After that, employers may apply to the HKSAR Government for reimbursement of the extra maternity leave pay.

Further, the Amendment Ordinance also updated the definition of “miscarriage” from “before 28 weeks of pregnancy” to “before 24 weeks of pregnancy” to entitle a female employee, whose child is incapable of survival after being born at or after 24 weeks of pregnancy, to maternity leave subject to other conditions.

The Amendment Ordinance also includes that a certificate of attendance issued by a medical professional is sufficient as a documentary proof for entitling an eligible employee to sickness allowance for any day on which the employee has attended a medical examination regarding her pregnancy.

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