Employment Termination

Hello Friends,

Sometime in April this year, my boss advised me to start looking for a new job since he doesn't need my services anymore. I tried looking for a job but due to age limitation (I'm 57 years old), I wasn't able to find a suitable one. I got a few offers but the salary is not enough for me to survive in Hong Kong considering the high rent and living costs.

Tomorrow will be my last day in office. I was told by my boss that severance pay is payable to an employee if was SACKED. However, he doesn't consider me as such for the reason that he gave me several months to find a new job before leaving the company. I'm losing my job because he asked me to leave although not right away. Is he right in saying that I'm not being SACKED from my work? The end result is that I will be deprived in receiving the severance payment that is mandated by the labor law.

I need the advice of friendly lawyers and human resources department personnel and knowledgeable friends out there. Would it labor dispute if my boss stands by his opinion? Your kind advice will be very much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.

Very truly yours,
Danica

If u would like some advice I could help you but you would need to give me more detail you can email me at maimaimasuda at netvigator.com

mmmaimai, judging by your offers of advice & assistance on this, and on many other posts, you seem to be a very knowledgable and helpful person!

First thing to do is to dig out your employment contract, and read it carefully.
Often, the terms of separation can be found in the contract. (but not always.)
Hong Kong is not Europe, the labor laws here favor the employer, with relatively minimal employee protection.
If separation clauses are found in your contract, then you stand on pretty firm ground to ask for specific terms to be fulfilled by your employer.
If not, then you are only entitled to the legal minimum.
Which in Hong Kong is not much.
I think the HK law only requires a notice period for typical employment. Which in your case, it seems your boss had given you plenty of notice.
I don't think (although not sure) that the HK law requires a severance to be paid if the notification requirement is satisfied.
In any case, it would not be much.
So the most important thing is to check the contract, and see if it has more favorable terms.