Welcome Message
The Labour Department is dedicated to enhancing the well-being of Hong Kong’s workforce, maintaining harmonious employer-employee relations, promoting employment and the safety and health of those at work, and protecting legal rights of employees.
Employment is vital to people’s livelihood and the key driver of economic growth. The Labour Department provides diversified employment services to help job seekers find jobs and employers recruit workers. We implement various employment programmes to promote the employment of young people, elderly and middle-aged people, persons with disabilities and ethnic minorities.
The Labour Department attaches great importance to safeguarding employees’ statutory employment rights and benefits. We conduct inspections of workplaces and other premises, and handle complaints over the employment of local employees and imported workers. To foster harmonious employer-employee relations, the Labour Department provides voluntary conciliation service to resolve labour disputes and claims, and launches a wide range of publicity activities to enhance public understanding of labour laws and promote good human resource management practices. Besides, we provide support and assistance to foreign domestic helpers and employers through various channels, while maintaining close collaboration with the relevant Consulates-General in Hong Kong. We also regulate employment agencies in Hong Kong through licensing, inspection, complaint investigation and prosecution.
The Labour Department reviews labour policies from time to time to improve employees’ rights and benefits progressively in the light of socio-economic development, taking into account the needs and interests of both employees and employers. In 2025, we amended the Employment Ordinance to reduce the working hours threshold of the “continuous contract” requirement, and the Trade Unions Ordinance to better safeguard national security and improve the trade union regulatory regime. To tie in with the abolition of using the accrued benefits of employers’ mandatory contributions under the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) System to offset severance payment and long service payment starting from 1 May 2025, we introduced on the same day a 25-year Subsidy Scheme for Abolition of MPF Offsetting Arrangement to help employers adapt to the policy change.
Another key responsibility of the Labour Department is to safeguard occupational safety and health (OSH). We endeavour to reduce the OSH risks to employees through a multi-pronged strategy of inspection and enforcement, education and training, publicity and promotion, and making use of innovation and technology. With the concerted efforts of employers, employees, safety practitioners and the Government, the overall OSH performance of Hong Kong has been improving over the years. However, the OSH performance of individual industries, the construction industry in particular, continues to call for our attention. We are particularly concerned about work activities that carry higher potential OSH risks, including work at height, lifting work and work under heat stress. The Labour Department will continue to keep close tabs on the OSH conditions of all industries, formulate and adjust our strategies and initiatives in a timely manner in accordance with the risk-based principle, and striving to promote the application of innovation and technology for safety in different industries in order to deter unsafe practices and strengthen protection for employees.
This homepage provides information on our services, latest news, publications on labour and employment-related subjects, occupational safety and health matters, etc. I hope you will find it informative and useful. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.