Employers encouraged to plan for rainstorms and typhoons - Hong Kong

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The Labour Department has urged employers to devise work arrangements for staff in times of typhoons and rainstorms before the rainy and typhoon season arrives.

A department spokesman said that, to avoid disputes and confusion, employers should work out work arrangements for staff and contingency measures in times of typhoons and rainstorms. In working out and enforcing the arrangements, employers should adopt a flexible approach and give prime consideration to employees' safety both in the workplace and during their journeys to and from work. Whenever possible, they should consult their staff.

The work arrangements should cover the following matters:

• whether employees are required to report for duty when different typhoon signals or rainstorm warnings are issued
  
  
• when a typhoon signal or rainstorm warning is issued during working hours, whether employees will be released from work and, if so, the arrangements
  
  
• after a typhoon signal or rainstorm warning is cancelled, the time for staff who have not reported for duty to resume work and the arrangements
  
  
• how wages and allowances (if any) will be calculated for staff who are required to report for duty and those who are late for work or absent from work during typhoons and rainstorms
  
  
• for employees who are required to report for duty during typhoons and rainstorms, whether transport facilities will be provided to them and, if so, the arrangements.

The spokesman said that, for essential staff that have to report for duty, employers should consider providing them with a special allowance or transport service as an encouragement. As typhoons and rainstorms are natural calamities that cannot be avoided, employers are strongly advised not to deduct wages of employees who are absent from or late for work because of inclement weather. Neither should employers dismiss an employee summarily based on these grounds.

Under the Employment Ordinance, it is unlawful for an employer to reduce the entitlements of an employee to annual leave, statutory holidays or rest days to compensate for the loss of working hours resulting from the issue of Typhoon Signal No. 8 or the announcement of a Black Rainstorm Warning. Employers are liable to pay compensation for deaths or injuries incurred when employees are travelling by direct routes between their residences and workplaces four hours before or after working hours on a day when Typhoon Signal No. 8 or above or a Red or Black Rainstorm Warning is in effect.

To provide practical guidelines and samples of work arrangements for reference, the Labour Department has issued a code of practice in times of typhoons and rainstorms.

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Further Information:
Employers should set work arrangements for rainstorms and typhoons
Key points of work arrangements in times of typhooons and rainstorms

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