It is known to HR professionals that there are limitations of the Employment Ordinance of Hong Kong (Chapter 57 of the Law of Hong Kong) and that the Employment Ordinance alone is not sufficient to deal with day-to-day personnel management, particularly in the areas of employment contracts, employees’ code of conduct; clauses of discrimination, confidentiality & restraint of trade; issues of dismissal, work injury, etc. The Employment Ordinance only provides for the basic statutory entitlements, rights, and protections of employees but it does not cover flexibilities on dealing with personnel and human resources issues.
As it is not possible for the legislations to cover all agreements between employers and employees across different industries, areas, and fields of trade, before making a commercial decision on a labour issue, a HR professional will find it useful to refer to past cases of decisions of related categories of disputes made by the court. A good commercial decision, which is made in time, would save a company from engaging in a long, resources consuming litigation.