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The General Holidays and Employment Legislation (Substitution of Holidays)(Amendment) Bill 2011 will be gazetted this Friday (November 11).
The Bill seeks to amend the Employment Ordinance (EO) and the General Holidays Ordinance (GHO) to change the day that is to be substituted as a statutory holiday and general holiday where any of the first three days of a Lunar New Year or the day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival falls on a Sunday.
With the change in Hong Kong's socio-economic circumstances in recent years, the number of employees working five days a week and taking days off on both Saturdays and Sundays has been increasing. For these employees, if any of the first three days of the Lunar New Year or the day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival falls on a Sunday, the existing arrangement under the relevant ordinances of designating the day ahead of the said holidays as a holiday in substitution may result in the holiday overlapping with their Saturday day-off. To improve the arrangement in this respect, the Government proposes to amend the EO and the GHO to designate the fourth day of the Lunar New Year as a holiday in substitution when either Lunar New Year's Day, the second day of the Lunar New Year or the third day of the Lunar New Year falls on a Sunday. By the same token, when the day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival falls on a Sunday, the day thereafter (i.e. the 17th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar) will be designated as a holiday in substitution.
The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council for first and second readings on November 23. As the next time that Lunar New Year's Day falls on a Sunday is in 2013, employees will be able to benefit from the implementation of the new legislation in 2013 at the earliest.
Ends/Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:07
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