Lawmakers should make haste in changing employment law to protect quarantined citizens: Law Chi-kwong

Lawmakers should approve an amendment to employment laws promptly to ensure citizens undergoing isolation or quarantine can enjoy sick leave, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong urged. 

The bill to amend the Employment Ordinance will undergo its first and second reading at Legislative Council this Wednesday. 

The amendment will make it explicit that if employees are absent from work due to their compliance with health restrictions, those will be deemed as sickness days under the Employment Ordinance. Allowance should be given to employees, and it will be “unreasonable dismissal” if employers fire them for it. 

The same amendment will also allow employers to sack employees who cannot go to work due to their refusal to receive vaccination without sufficient medical reasons. 

In his blog on Sunday, Law said health authorities issued sick leave certificates for those undergoing quarantine during the 2003 SARS outbreak. 

But when Covid-19 broke out in the beginning of 2020, the government was of the view that compulsory quarantine did not equal to sickness. Mandatory quarantine notices could not serve the same purpose as sick leave certificates, and the government must amend the Employment Ordinance to solve the issue, legal experts told authorities. 

He said there was filibustering in the last Legislative Council term. After pro-democracy lawmakers resigned en masse by the end of 2020, the government had to focus on priority issues such as amending penalties for industrial accidents and canceling the offsetting mechanism for Mandatory Provident Fund. 

Now the amendment to Employment Ordinance can finally be tabled, Law called upon LegCo to approve it as soon as possible. 

On Sunday, Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions called upon the government to include a clause in the amendment to date back the changes to January 1, so that citizens who are infected earlier and their close contacts can be protected. 

On the other hand, Law told state media Xinhua News Agency that Hong Kong has so far managed to hire 120 mainland workers to help out at local elderly centers. The number falls fall short of the target to employ 1,000 such staffers. 

Manpower shortage will persist, as 1,000 to 2,000 people are needed at centers where elderly people with no or slight Covid-19 symptoms are housed. Another 2,000 to 3,000 people are needed at elderly homes. 

As of last Friday, 90 percent of Hong Kong's 800 elderly homes were hit during the fifth wave of Covid-19 outbreak.