share on
The revised ‘continuous contract’ requirement will take effect from 18 January 2026.
Hong Kong's Legislative Council (LegCo) passed the Employment (Amendment) Bill 2025 on 18 June 2025 to revise the working hours threshold of the 'continuous contract' requirement under the Employment Ordinance (EO) (Cap. 57).
Key revisions include:
- Lowering the weekly working hours threshold from 18 hours to 17 hours; and
- Providing an alternative of using the aggregate working hours in a specified four-week period as a counting unit, in which a week with less than 17 working hours will still be regarded as a continuous employment period if the sum of the working hours of that week and those of the three weeks immediately preceding it reaches 68 hours (commonly referred to as the "468" requirement).
The HKSAR Government has welcomed the passage of the Bill. A Government spokesperson stated that the amendments not only lower the working hours threshold of the 'continuous contract' requirement, but also introduce more flexibility in the calculation of working hours.
This change helps reduce the circumstances of disrupting the continuity of an employee's employment because the working hours of a week occasionally fall below the threshold, thus making it easier for employees to enjoy comprehensive employment rights, including statutory holiday pay, annual leave, and more.
"After the amendments, other provisions of the EO will continue to operate as they currently do, and existing eligibility criteria for employees to enjoy various statutory benefits will remain unchanged. Employees who have met the current 'continuous contract' requirement will not be affected," added the spokesperson.
The Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 will be gazetted on 27 June 2025, and the revised ‘continuous contract’ requirement will take effect from 18 January 2026, onwards.
share on
