Key Employment Issues from the 2026 Policy Address

On 16 September 2026, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR delivered his 2026 Policy Address.  Amongst the topics were several notable employment related issues. We summarise them below:

Imported Labour and Employment Priority for Local Workers

• The government will continue to combat illegal employment and adopt relevant measures such as appointing “Anti-Illegal Employment Ambassadors” across different industries and strive for sentences for illegal employment with a greater deterrent effect.
• Applications under the Limited Supplementary Labour arrangements will be subject to more stringent vetting. For example, the government will continue to specify the job categories for the tiered vetting mechanism under the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme, with different requirements for manning ratio and local recruitment process.
• The measures are intended to balance manpower shortages with the protection of local workers’ employment opportunities.

New Legislative Protection for Delivery Workers

• New legislation will be formulated to strengthen protection for delivery workers, providing statutory compensation for injuries at work.

Enhanced Occupational Safety and Health

• Occupational safety and health protections will be further enhanced, using innovative technologies such as the Smart Site Safety System (4S) labelling scheme.
• Publicity and education efforts to raise safety and law‑abiding awareness among contractors and workers will be further stepped up.

Other Relevant Information

• For the recent case concerning whether a food delivery rider can be regarded as an employee, please see our article here.
• For the recent case concerning whether psychiatric trauma can amount to work injury, please see our article here.

Russell Bennett and Mark Chiu