**********************************************************
The Labour Department reminds employers to devise work arrangements for staff in times of typhoons and rainstorms.
A department spokesman said that to avoid disputes and confusion, employers should work out 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:
- 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; and
- 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.
"Employers should also make realistic assessments of the requirements for essential staff and require only those absolutely essential staff to report for duty in adverse weather conditions. When weather conditions continue to worsen and public transport service will be suspended shortly, employers should consider releasing their staff as soon as practicable."
"For essential staff that have to report for duty, employers should consider providing them with a special allowance or transport service as an encouragement."
"If Pre-No 8 Special Announcement is issued during working hours, staff who may face greater hardships in travelling (including pregnant and physically handicapped employees and those who rely on ferry services to and from their workplace or live in remote areas) should be allowed to leave as soon as practicable. Other employees should be released later in stages according to their travelling distance or the time required to return home."
"For staff who have practical difficulties in resuming work promptly upon cancellation of a typhoon or rainstorm warning, employers should be empathetic to them and handle each case flexibly," the spokesman said.
"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," he said.
The spokesman also reminded employers to discharge their obligations and observe the requirements under the Employment Ordinance, the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance and the Employees' Compensation Ordinance.
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 should also note that they have an obligation to maintain a safe workplace for their employees under the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance.
"If employees are required to work in times of typhoons and rainstorms, employers should make sure that the risks at work are properly controlled and reduced, as much as is reasonably practicable," the spokesman said.
Under the Employees' Compensation Ordinance, employers are liable to pay compensation for deaths or injuries incurred when employees are travelling by a direct route from their residences to workplaces, or from workplaces back to residences after work, 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. The code can be obtained from the branch offices of the Labour Relations Division or downloaded from the department's webpage (www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/wcp/Rainstorm.pdf).
Whenever a Black Rainstorm Warning is issued between 6am and 9am, the department will remind employers through the electronic media that for safety's sake they should not require employees to report for work unless a prior agreement to the contrary has been made.
Employers and employees are welcome to call the department's hotline at 2717 1771 (handled by "1823 Citizen's Easy Link") for further enquiries.
Ends/Friday, April 18, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:35
NNNN