Statutory/Regulatory Leave in Hong Kong and Rest Day

What The Regulation Says On Which Day Our Employees Should/Can Be On Leave?

Referring to the Employment Ordinance, all employees should be entitled to a number of rest days, statutory holidays and paid annual leave during employment. You may refer to chapter 4 of the concise guide published by labour department for more details:

http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/wcp/ConciseGuide/04.pdf

For annual leave, you may refer to another article prepared by us:

http://www.carbonik.com/en-hk/hr-guide/hong-kong/paid-annual-leave

So Can We Ask our Employees to Work Continuously without Resting?

Rest Day:

You should allow your employee a rest day in every 7-day period of work.

On rest day, employee can abstain from work for 24 hours.

Whether it is paid or not can be agreed between you and your employee. Normally, rest day should be of regular nature but if it is irregular, you should inform your employee the rest days of the coming calendar month before the month begins.

And How About Other Holiday? What the Regulation Says?

Statutory Holiday:

In Hong Kong, according to section 39 of Employment Ordinance, regardless of length of service, your employees are entitled to the 13 statutory holidays as specified in the Employment Ordinance.

1. The first day of January
2. Lunar New Year's Day
3. The second day of Lunar New Year
4. The third day of Lunar New Year
5. Ching Ming Festival
6. Labour Day, being the first day of May
7. the Birthday of the Buddha (newly added from 2022)
8. Tuen Ng Festival
9. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day, being the first day of July
10. The day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival
11. Chung Yeung Festival
12. National Day, being the first day of October
13. Chinese Winter Solstice Festival or Christmas Day (at the option of the employer)

According to the Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2021, the number of statutory holidays has increased from existing 12 to 17 days
The other 4 additional SHs will be increased in the following sequence:

Please note, employee is not allowed work on statutory holiday and subsequently received additional wage to settle the issue, ie, "buy-out" the holiday. After working on statutory holiday, employer and employee must arrange another day of leave as a substitute.

For sure, you may adopt the Bank Holiday practice. In HR system such as Backstage, you can define which set of holiday applies to your staff members.

Reference:

Employment Ordinance:

Link to Employment Ordinance