Hong Kong

An employee can be terminated for misconduct, negligence, disobedience of reasonable regulations, and generally, violating the employment.

An employee cannot be terminated for pregnancy, taking maternity leave, getting injured at work, joining a union, exercising their sick leave, or taking time off work to fulfil civil responsibilities like jury duty, etc.

The employment contract spells out the notice period an employer should provide before laying off an employee and should be at least seven days.

If there’s no notice period specified in the employment contract, an employer must inform an employer at least 30 days before their employment is terminated.

Notice period required during the probation period

• within the first month, no notice period is required

• after the first month where a contract makes provision for a required length of notice, the period is as per agreement

• after the first month where a contract does not make provision, the notice period should not be less than seven days

Notice period for a continuous contract / after the probation period

• where the contract makes provision, the notice period is as per agreement, not less than seven days

• where the contract does not make provision, the notice period should not be less than one month

According to the Hong Kong Employment Ordinance, an exiting employee is entitled to a severance package equal to 2/3 of the last full month’s salary or HK$ 22,500 multiplied by the number of years of employment with the employer.

The calculation for an employee that is paid on a monthly basis:

• (the previous full month’s wages * 2/3) * reckonable years of service

• the sum should not exceed 2/3 of $22,500 (i.e. $15,000)

Probation periods in Hong Kong last anywhere from one to three months and should be clearly defined in the employment contract.