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Employers reminded of statutory holidays entitlement

The Labour Department today (Tuesday) reminded employers that the first three days of the Lunar New Year (February 19 to 21) are statutory holidays for employees.

Under the Employment Ordinance, all employees, irrespective of their wage levels, are entitled to statutory holidays and must be paid for the day off if they have worked continuously for the same employer for three months or longer before the statutory holiday.

Holiday pay should be equivalent to an employee's earnings on a full working day and should include basic wages as well as allowances that can be expressed in money terms such as meals and cost of living allowances.

Where the earnings vary from day to day, holiday pay should be the average daily earnings during every complete wage period, which could be between 28 and 31 days, preceding the holiday.

If an employee is required to work on a statutory holiday, he must be given an alternative day off within 60 days before or after the holiday.

Enquiries about statutory holidays may be made at the Labour Department's General Enquiry Telephone Service on 2717 1771.

End

Enquiry Hotline for Trade Department comes into operation tomorrow

The Trade Department's new Enquiry Hotline - 2392 2922- will come into operation tomorrow (Wednesday) to provide the public with a convenient source of trade data and to handle requests for the department's application forms and information leaflets during and outside office hours.

The new service, an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), will offer a 24-hour enquiry service in either English, Cantonese or Putonghua as part of the department's on-going efforts to enhance the level of its services to meet increasing

customer demands.

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