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employer is liable to pay a severance payment, or part of a severance payment, and that liability had not accrued before the death of the deceased employer, it shall be treated for all purposes as if it were a liability of the deceased employer which had accrued immediately before his death.
PART II
Death of Employee
11. Where an employer has given notice to an employee to terminate his contract of employment, and before that notice expires the employee dies, Part IIIA of this Ordinance shall apply as if the contract had been duly terminated by the employer by notice expiring on the date of the employee's death.
12. Where an employer has given notice to an employee to terminate his contract of employment, and has offered to renew his contract of employment, or to re-engage him under a new contract, and—
(a) the employee dies without having either accepted or refused the
offer; and
(b) the offer has not been withdrawn before his death, subsection (2) or (as the case may be) subsection (3) of section 20D shall apply as if, for the words "the employee has unreasonably refused", there were substituted the words "it would have been unreasonable on the part of the employee to refuse".
13. In relation to the making of a claim by a personal representative of a deceased employee who dies before the end of the period of one month beginning with the relevant date, section 200 shall apply with the substitution, for the words "one month", of the words "three months".
14. Subject to this Part of this Schedule, in relation to an employee who has died, any reference in Part IIIA of this Ordinance to-
(a) the doing of anything by, or in relation to, an employee shall be construed as including a reference to the doing of that thing by, or in relation to, any personal representative of the deceased employee; and
(b) a thing required or authorized to be done by, or in relation to, an employee shall be construed as including a reference to any- thing which, in accordance with Part IIIA of this Ordinance as modified by this Part of this Schedule (including sub-paragraph (a)), is required or authorized to be done by, or in relation to, any personal representative of his.
15. Any right of a personal representative of a deceased employee to a severance payment, where that right had not accrued before the employee's death, shall devolve as if it had accrued before his death.".
Explanatory Memorandum
This Bill amends the Employment Ordinance to provide for severance payments for employees who, in specified circumstances, are dismissed by reason of redundancy or are laid off.