OpinionCovid-19 sick leave, allowances and more: Hong Kong firms must show they value employees’ sacrifices

Employers are dealing with many pressing issues during the pandemic, including how to handle sick leave and who counts as being ‘sick’

Good employers will adopt policies that show understanding of employees’ struggles and appreciation of their efforts during these tough times

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A worker at a construction site in North Point on March 23. Employees who cannot work from home have faced questions over sick leave and risk losing their jobs if they have to self-isolate during the pandemic. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 6:45am, 25 Mar 2022

To grant sick leave or not? Many employers are wrestling with that question during the fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and its massive number of Omicron variant infections. Large numbers of employees are not reporting for work, and there is a grey area in the law on how to handle these work absences.

What qualifies an employee as “sick”? Under Hong Kong’s Employment Ordinance, paid sick leave or sickness allowance is granted to employees under a continuous contract of employment who take sick leave for four or more consecutive days supported by a medical certificate, provided they have accumulated sick leave days.

For example, they receive two days per month for the first 12 months and four days per month thereafter, up to a maximum of 120 days.

If an employee tests positive for Covid-19 via a PCR test, there should be no issue with their absence being treated as paid sick leave. However, many other issues have arisen with the pandemic and how “sickness” is defined, especially in the Hong Kong context.

For example, what if someone tests positive via a rapid antigen test (RAT)? Can RAT tests be manipulated to show false positive test results, as suggested by an employee who claimed paid sick leave on the back of one?

Also, how does one obtain a medical certificate when one is supposed to self-isolate? The Labour Department has issued a publication urging employers to be “compassionate” and to consider granting the employee paid sick leave even without a medical certificate.