The Employees' Compensation Ordinance, Cap. 282

Content

To speed up the settlement of employees’ compensation cases, both the employer and the employee, or solely the employer, may submit an application to the Labour Department to initiate the “Paper Medical Clearance” (“PMC”) procedures to facilitate the issue of the Certificate of Compensation Assessment (Form 5).

• there is no dispute over the case;
• the period of sick leave should be more than 7 days (if the period of sick leave does not exceed 7 days, the employer and the employee should settle the case via direct payment by employer or agreement between employer and employee in accordance with section 10(11) or section 16CA of the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance respectively);
• the injury/ occupational disease does not lead to any permanent incapacity;
• the injury/ occupational disease does not involve damage to teeth or the need for fitting of prostheses or surgical appliances;
• all sick leave certificates are issued by registered medical practitioners, registered Chinese medicine practitioners and/or registered dentists;
• the employee’s sick leave has already come to an end;
• the employer must provide copy of all sick leave certificates in respect of the employees’ compensation case; and
• for occupational disease case, it should be one specified in the Second Schedule of the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance as advised by the Occupational Health Officer of the Labour Department.

If the case meets the above requirements, an employer may submit an application according to one of the following scenarios:

(i) An application made by both parties

If both the employer and the employee agree to settle the case by PMC, the application form, having signed by both parties, can be submitted to the Labour Department together with the required documents. A Certificate of Compensation Assessment (Form 5) stating the amount of compensation payable will be issued to both parties after the application is approved.

(ii) An application made solely by an employer is applicable to one of the following two situations:

Situation 1:

The employer proposes to settle the case by PMC, but is unable to have the employee sign the application form.

Situation 2:

The employee fails to complete the medical clearance or assessment procedure despite being urged repeatedly by the Labour Department, rendering the case outstanding.

In the above two situations, the employer may solely return a completed and signed application form together with the required documents to the Labour Department. The Labour Department will issue a letter to inform the employee that the case will be handled by PMC. Unless the employee raises objection to this arrangement, the Labour Department will issue a Certificate of Compensation Assessment (Form 5) to both parties stating the amount of compensation payable after the application is approved.

If the application is approved, the employee will not be required to attend the medical clearance interview at the Occupational Medicine Unit of the Labour Department in person. The application form is available at the offices of Employees’ Compensation Division and the website of the Labour Department (attachment of Form 2).

If the case meets the conditions mentioned in A1 above, an employee may solely apply for settlement under “Paper Medical Clearance” by submitting a completed and signed application form, together with the required documents, to the Labour Department. If the application is approved, the employee will not be required to attend the medical clearance interview at the Occupational Medicine Unit of the Labour Department in person and a Certificate of Compensation Assessment (Form 5) will be issued to the employer and the employee. The employee may approach the case officer of Employees’ Compensation Division to obtain the application form.