### Employment Ordinance 《僱傭條例》

11. Suspension from employment in certain cases
(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Ordinance or of any other law, an employer may without notice or payment in lieu suspend from employment any employee for a period not exceeding 14 days—
(a) as a disciplinary measure for any reason for which the employer could have terminated the contract of employment under section 9;
(b) pending a decision by the employer as to whether or not he will exercise his right to terminate the contract of employment under section 9; or
(c) pending the outcome of any criminal proceedings against the employee arising out of or connected with his employment:
Provided that where such criminal proceedings are not concluded within the period of 14 days such suspension may be extended till the conclusion of the criminal proceedings.
(2) An employee who is suspended from employment under subsection (1) may at any time during the period of his suspension, notwithstanding sections 6 and 7, terminate his contract of employment without notice or payment in lieu.
(3) Without prejudice to the provisions of subsection (1), an employer may lay-off an employee for such periods as are expressly agreed in, or may be implied from, the contract of employment.
(4) Notwithstanding subsection (3), the period of lay-off shall in no case exceed—
(a) a total of half of the total number of normal working days in any period of 4 consecutive weeks; or
(b) a total of one-third of the total number of normal working days in any period of 26 consecutive weeks. (Added 41 of 1990 s. 5)

### Employment Ordinance 《僱傭條例》

11A. Interpretation
(1) In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires— (Amended 7 of 2007 s. 5)
end of year payment (年終酬金) means any annual payment (whether described as “thirteenth month payment”, “fourteenth month payment”, “double pay”, “end of year bonus” or otherwise) or annual bonus of a contractual nature, but does not include any annual payment or any annual bonus, or any proportion thereof, which is of a gratuitous nature or which is payable only at the discretion of the employer; (Amended 74 of 1997 s. 6)
lunar year (農曆年) means a Chinese lunar year ending immediately before a Lunar New Year’s Day;
payment period (酬金期) has the meaning assigned to it by section 11C;
proportion of the end of year payment (部分年終酬金) means the proportion of the end of year payment calculated in accordance with section 11F.
(Amended 7 of 2007 s. 5)(2)  For the purposes of subsections (3), (4) and (5), wages (工資) includes any sum paid by an employer in respect of—
(a) a day of maternity leave, a day of paternity leave, a rest day, a sickness day, a holiday or a day of annual leave taken by the employee; (Amended 21 of 2014 s. 5)
(b) a day of leave taken by the employee with the agreement of his employer;
(c) a normal working day on which the employee is not provided with work;
(d) a day of absence from work of the employee due to temporary incapacity for which compensation is payable under section 10 of the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282). (Added 7 of 2007 s. 5)

(3) In this Part, a reference to the full month’s wages of an employee is to be construed as a reference to the monthly average of the wages earned by the employee during—
(a) the period of 12 months immediately before the day on which the end of year payment becomes due to the employee under section 11E(1) or (2) or the day on which the proportion thereof becomes due to the employee under section 11F(3) or (4) (as appropriate) (due day

### Employment Ordinance 《僱傭條例》

11AA. Presumption
(1) It shall be presumed that an annual payment or annual bonus is not of a gratuitous nature and is not payable only at the discretion of the employer unless there is a written term or condition in the contract of employment to the contrary.
(2) For the avoidance of doubt, it is hereby declared that subsection (1) shall not apply to any contract of employment made before the commencement* of this section.
(Added 74 of 1997 s. 7)

11B. Application of Part IIA
(1) Subject to any agreement to the contrary and to subsection (2), this Part shall apply to an employee employed under a continuous contract if an end of year payment is payable by the employer to that employee by virtue of a term or condition (whether written or oral, express or implied) of the contract of employment.
(2) In the case of an employee to whom this Part applies, any term or condition of the contract of employment which purports to prevent the payment under section 11F of a proportion of the end of year payment shall be void.

11C. Payment period
The payment period in respect of which an end of year payment is payable under this Part shall be—
(a) the payment period specified in that behalf in the contract of employment; or
(b) if a payment period is not so specified, a lunar year.

11D. Amount of end of year payment
An end of year payment payable to an employee to whom this Part applies who has been employed by the same employer for the whole of a payment period shall be—
(a) the end of year payment specified in that behalf in the contract of employment; or
(b) if an end of year payment is not so specified, a sum equivalent to a full month’s wages of the employee.

### Employment Ordinance 《僱傭條例》

11E. Time of payment of end of year payment
(1) An end of year payment payable to an employee to whom this Part applies in respect of a payment period shall become due to the employee—
(a) subject to subsection (2), on the day specified in that behalf in the contract of employment; or
(b) if a day is not so specified, on the last day of the payment period,
and shall be paid as soon as is practicable but in any case not later than 7 days after that day but nothing in this section shall be construed as preventing the payment of the end of year payment at any time before that day.
(2) Where the contract of employment of an employee to whom this Part applies who has been employed for the whole of a payment period is terminated after the expiry of the payment period but before the end of year payment becomes due on the day specified in the contract, the end of year payment shall, notwithstanding that a day is so specified, become due to the employee—
(a) on the day on which the contract of employment terminates; or
(b) in the case of an end of year payment that falls to be calculated by reference to any profits of the employer, on the day on which the profits of the employer are ascertained,
and shall be paid as soon as is practicable but in any case not later than 7 days after that day.

### Employment Ordinance 《僱傭條例》

12A. Interpretation
In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires—
pregnant employee (懷孕僱員) means a female employee whose pregnancy has been confirmed by a medical certificate.
(Added 73 of 1997 s. 2)