Revise the “Continuous Contract” Requirement under the Employment Ordinance
The Legislative Council passed the amendments on 18 June 2025 to revise the working hours threshold of the “continuous contract” requirement under the Employment Ordinance (EO). Under the new requirement, an employee is regarded as being employed under a “continuous contract” if the following criteria are met :
(1) the employee has been employed continuously by the same employer for four weeks or more; and
(2) the employee has met one of the working hours requirements :
(i) he has worked for at least 17 hours in each week; or
(ii) (where he has worked less than 17 hours in any week) he has worked for 68 hours or more in a four-week period (Note) comprising that week and the three weeks next preceding that week.
(Note) The employee has been employed by the employer concerned during this four-week period.
After the amendments, other provisions of the EO will continue to operate as they currently do, and existing eligibility criteria for various statutory benefits will remain unchanged. In other words, an employee who meets the revised “continuous contract” requirement will be entitled to a particular benefit if he also meets the relevant conditions for that benefit.
In any dispute as to whether a contract of employment is a “continuous contract”, the onus of proving that it is not a “continuous contract” shall be on the employer.
The new requirement will be applicable from 18 January 2026. For an employment period before this date, an employee is still required to be employed continuously by the same employer for four weeks or more and has worked for at least 18 hours or more each week to meet the “continuous contract” requirement.