Paid paternity leave updated to int’l standards before year-end

The long-debated draft bill regarding paid paternity leave will face legislative procedures this year, revealed the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong, yesterday morning during a TDM radio program.
Currently, the city’s Standing Committee for the Coordination of Social Affairs is discussing the revision of the “Labor Relations Law” to include a leave stipulation for fathers-to-be. However, discussion of this revision, which was supposedly on the committee’s agenda in the third quarter of last year, had been post-­poned.
According to Leong, the authorities would use current international standards of leave as a reference in their discussion. So far, only male civil servants are legally entitled to five days off work at the birth of a child. Earlier this year, several policy-
makers jointly urged the government to establish this amount of paid leave for all fathers.
“Speaking of the paternity leave, actually our related labor department is highly concerned about it,” said the secretary on the program. “I hope they can stick to their schedule and paternity leave can enter the legislation this year.”
The Hong Kong government has passed a law to grant three days of paid leave to new fathers, effective this year. However, the leave comes with a deduction of 20 percent from their salary.