Date: 24 September 2026 (Thursday) Time: 2:30pm–5:45pm Language: English Level: Elementary
Speaker: Michael Szeto, Partner, ONC Lawyer
Lawyer CPD / ACCA CPD / SFC CPT / Insurers’ CPD Pts: 3 points Fee: HK$1,800
Highlights: This webinar offers a hands-on, comprehensive guide to the entire employment relationship—beginning with the entering into an employment relationship and extending through to dismissal and any subsequent legal proceedings, with a strong emphasis on the areas most prone to employer-employee conflict.
Attendees will learn best practices for drafting robust employment agreements at the outset, understand the critical statutory protections afforded by the Employment Ordinance, and explore methods for safeguarding company interests via well-drafted confidentiality clauses and post-termination restrictions.
The session also addresses the practical and legal hurdles commonly encountered upon termination, such as layoffs, severance pay, and bonus eligibility.
Attendees will also learn about the dispute resolution mechanisms for employment disputes, including settlement discussions, conciliation through the Labour Department, and proceedings before the Labour Tribunal or the Court of First Instance.
Session Content:
- Concept of continuous employment
- The defintion of continuous employment, and its importance
- Fixed-term contract
- Common structures and essential provisions in employment contracts
- Fundamental statutory rights under the Employment Ordinance
- Summary of major employee protections
- Maternity leave
- Sick leave entitlements and allowance
- Annual leave
- Statutory rest days
- Notice period
- Terminal payments: pay in lieu of notice, severance
- Payment, long service payment, and end-of-year payments
- Common Business Protection Measures: Confidentiality and Post-termination restrictions
- Common restrictive covenants: Non-compete, non-solicit, and non-poaching clauses
- Factors affecting the enforceability of restrictive covenants
- Confidentiality clauses
- Circumstances that may render a confidentiality clause unenforceable
- Key drafting considerations
- Common Termination Challenges
- Termination via notice or payment in lieu
- Summary dismissal for gross misconduct
- Unreasonable dismissal: When is an employee protected against unreasonable protection and what are the valid reasons for dismissal?
- Redundancy situations
- Long service and severance payment
- Interaction between discrimination legislation and termination
- Bonus claims: discretionary vs contractual, whether it falls under the definition of wages under the Employment Ordinance
- Navigating Employment Disputes
- Early without-prejudice communications
- Claims before the Labour Tribunal, and possible transfer to the District Court or the Court of First Instance
- Appeal to the Court of First Instance
