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Legal Updates
Legal Update: Employment (Amendment) Bill 2022 introduces proposed amendments relating to sickness and vaccination requests
The Hong Kong Government had recently tightened the already severe social-distancing measures in view of the 5th wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong and made announcements of other policies it intended to implement in the future. Vaccine Pass Regulation The Government had made…Read More
Legal Update: Proposed amendments to abolish MPF offsetting arrangement relating to statutory severance and long service payments
On 11 February 2022, the Government of the HKSAR published the Employment and Retirement Schemes Legislation (Offsetting Arrangement) (Amendment) Bill 2022 (the “Amendment Bill”) in the Gazette. The Amendment Bill was given the First Reading at the Legislative Council on 23 February 2022. Currently, employers…Read More
Recent District Court decision on whether ‘gweilo’ remark discriminatory
Introduction More than three years ago, we published an article on this site in respect of a District Court claim lodged by a British construction professional (the “Employee”) who alleged that his former employer (the “Employer”) had discriminated against him on the ground of his…Read More
Important points for making discrimination claims highlighted in a recent District Court case by a former student against a local university
The background The Claimant in the case of C v The Chinese University of Hong Kong [2022] HKDC 77 is a former postgraduate student in the Chinese University (the “University”) who was suffering from depression and generalized anxiety disorder during her studies. The Claimant’s studies…Read More
Legal update: Abolition of fraud exception to summary judgments in Hong Kong
Introduction Notwithstanding heightened awareness of cyber-fraud, it is still common for individuals to be duped by fraudsters into remitting money to bank accounts in Hong Kong (and elsewhere of course) with the funds then being further dissipated by the fraudsters to put them beyond the…Read More
Tanner De Witt joins the Greener Litigation Pledge
We are proud to announce that Tanner De Witt is now a signatory to the Greener Litigation Pledge.
Legal Update: The High Court confirms and restates the employer’s right to terminate under contractual provisions, and the limited effect on that right of the implied duty of trust and confidence in employment contracts
The Duty The implied duty of mutual trust and confidence (the “Duty”) was first recognised in the UK case of Malik v BCCI [1998] AC 20 and was later adopted by the Hong Kong Courts in Evelyn Semana Bachicha v Poon Shiu Man Henry (CACV…Read More
Legal update: Hong Kong High Court upholds a six-month non-compete clause
The Hong Kong High Court has recently upheld and enforced a six-month non-compete clause in BFAM Partners (Hong Kong) Limited v Gareth John Mills and Segantii Capital Management Limited [2021] HKCFI 2904, granting an injunction in favour of the applicant former employer, BFAM. Background BFAM, a company…Read More
Injunction to restrain the presentation of a winding-up petition
Introduction Rather unfortunately, there are no statutory provisions available to a company to set aside a statutory demand. If a company is served with a statutory demand and disputes the alleged debt, save for agreeing with the alleged creditor not to present a winding-up petition,…Read More
Legal Update – Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Review Tribunal and Competence Assessment for Money Service Operators
The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance, Chapter 615 of the laws of Hong Kong, (“AMLO”) (formerly known as Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Financial Institutions) Ordinance) came into effect on April 1 2012. It aims to enhance the anti-money laundering (“AML”) and counter-financing of…Read More
Data Breach Response: The Continuous Improvement Cycle
Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. So said Samuel Beckett. And quite pertinent in the context of data breaches. In this article, Pádraig Walsh from the Privacy and Cybersecurity practice group of Tanner De Witt explains that, in a…Read More
Legal update: Statutory holidays to be increased from 12 days to 17 days over the next 9 years
The Hong Kong Legislative Council has passed the Employment (Amendment) Bill 2021 with its third reading given on 7 July 2021. Starting from 1 January 2022, 5 days will be added to the list of statutory holidays progressively with one day added every 2 years. …Read More
