Our Hong Kong and China employment teams covered important changes and trends in employment law over the past year. Hong Kong Topics under the employment legislative update include maternity leave, updates to anti-discrimination legislation, statutory holidays, MPF setoff and immigration updates. The team also shared some case studies and discussed…

A recent High Court decision in Yung Wai Tak Abraham William v. Natural Dairy (Nz) Holdings Ltd (in Provisional Liquidation) (17/08/2020, HCLA26/2018) [2020] HKCFI 2067 (“Decision”) held that a Hong Kong listed company and its wholly owned subsidiary were joint employers of the appellant whose main job was to serve the listed company as its company secretary, notwithstanding that the written employment contract was solely made with the subsidiary. The parent company was held liable for, inter alia, unpaid wages, statutory severance payment and payment in lieu of notice owed to the appellant by the subsidiary. In coming to its conclusion, the court applied the “overall impression” test set down by the Court of Final Appeal in Poon Chau Nam v Yim Siu Cheung,1 taking into account all relevant features of the parties’ relationship, including the proper interpretation of the written employment contract, the recruitment process, the services provided by the employee to the companies involved, the employer’s confession, and other contemporaneous documentary evidence.

Hong Kong was one of the earliest cities to be impacted by COVID-19 and is now just coming out of its second wave of COVID-19 cases. With the number of cases in Hong Kong decreasing, employers who have operated work from home arrangements are currently assessing how best to reopen…