Section 39

Grant of holidays

假日的給予

Part VIIA — Holidays with Pay (有薪假日)

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Statutory Text

(1) Subject to subsections (1A), (2) and (3), an employee shall be granted a statutory holiday by his employer on each of the following days*—

(a) Lunar New Year’s Day or, if that day falls on a Sunday, then the fourth day of Lunar New Year;

(b) the second day of Lunar New Year or, if that day falls on a Sunday, then the fourth day of Lunar New Year;

(d) Ching Ming (清明) Festival;

(da) Labour Day, being the first day of May;

(e) Tuen Ng (端午) Festival;

(f) the day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn (中秋) Festival or, if that day falls on a Sunday, then the second day following that Festival; ;

(g) the Chung Yeung (重陽) Festival;

(h) the Chinese Winter Solstice Festival (冬節) or Christmas Day, at the option of the employer;

(i) the first day of January;

(j) Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day, being the first day of July;

(k) National Day, being the first day of October;

(l) the Birthday of the Buddha, being the eighth day of the fourth lunar month;

(m) the first weekday after Christmas Day;

(n) Easter Monday.

(1A) The operation of subsection (1)(da) shall be suspended for the year 1998.

(2) An employer may, instead of granting an employee a holiday on a statutory holiday, grant the employee an alternative holiday on another day (which is not a statutory holiday or a substituted holiday) within the period of 60 days immediately preceding or next following the statutory holiday, if the employer has notified the employee, either orally or in writing or by notice posted in a conspicuous place in the place of employment, of the day on which he will be granted the alternative holiday—

(a) where the alternative holiday is to be taken on a day within the period of 60 days immediately preceding the statutory holiday, not less than 48 hours before that day; or

(b) where the alternative holiday is to be taken on a day within the period of 60 days next following the statutory holiday, not less than 48 hours before the statutory holiday.

(2A) Subsection (2) shall apply to and in relation to a holiday under subsection (4) as it applies to and in relation to a statutory holiday.

(3) An employer and his employee may agree that another day shall be substituted for a statutory holiday or an alternative holiday or a holiday under subsection (4), if such substituted holiday falls within the period of 30 days of such statutory holiday, alternative holiday or holiday under subsection (4).

(4) Where—

(a) a statutory holiday falls on a rest day, or in the case of an employee who is a young person, on a day on which, by virtue of the Employment of Young Persons (Industry) Regulations ( Cap. 57 sub. leg. C ), the employment of the employee in an industrial undertaking is not allowed, the employee shall be granted a holiday on the next day thereafter which is not a statutory holiday or an alternative holiday or a substituted holiday or a rest day; or

(b) a statutory holiday falls on the same day as that of another statutory holiday, an employee shall be granted a holiday on the next day thereafter which is not a statutory holiday or an alternative holiday or a substituted holiday or a rest day.

^# (5)-(9)

Editorial Note:

	For additional statutory holidays in 1981, 1986, 1997 and 2015, see 39 of 1981 , 35 of 1986 , 84 of 1997 , s. 2(1) of 111 of 1997 and s. 2(b) of 9 of 2015 .
^#	For savings provisions, please see s. 6 of 137 of 1997 .

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