Statutory holiday - new helper

Legally, she is not entitled to have these holidays until after working 3 months with you. Since you know the condition, it's really at your disposal. 10 years back, I wasn't aware of this and gave my newly hired helper all the statutory holidays within the first 3 months and when I realized it and asked 'did you know that you are not entitled to those holidays?' and she replied 'I thought you were a good boss by giving them to me!' Well, what can I say then!

She is entitled to the statutory holiday, but I think if she has worked for you less than 3 months then you don't have to pay.

We still gave our helper a paid day off for public holidays that fell within her first 3 months of service. A combination of good gesture and the fact that it's nice to have our private family time when my husband is home. Also a little bit of we couldn't be bothered changing the autopay we had set up for her pay. I think it's a personal call and what you are comfortable doing.

Hi Cara, It is not a question if i can afford it or not, i was just asking the legality if she has the right to take the off on her first 3 months.

Notwithstanding legal considerations, I think that helpers should get the statutory holidays off whether they've worked a week or a year. If you do not want to give her the day off that is fine assuming the law supports you. However consider what message you are sending to her about the conditions of her employment. The worrying thing here is that you were surprised by it. It is very important to have clear and honest communication and you should initiate this. You should have told her ahead of time if you were going to give her the day off or not. Even i she "sneaked out" the onus is still on you to be clear so there is no misunderstanding.

"10 years back, I wasn't aware of this and gave my newly hired helper all the statutory holidays within the first 3 months and when I realized it and asked 'did you know that you are not entitled to those holidays?' and she replied 'I thought you were a good boss by giving them to me!' Well, what can I say then!" You can feel good about yourself. ;)

Hi Moppet So they do get the holidays but I don't understand about 'just not to be paid for it'. Do you mean to subtract daily payment from their salary? Anyway, I gave her the holidays and the full monthly wage then without knowing the legal situation and it was all in the past so I am OK with it. Thanks for pointing out the fact. Hi axptguy38 'You can feel good about yourself'.........no, not exactly as I felt I was taken for a ride. She knew and didn't let me in on it expecting that I also knew and when she went home to get married after 4.5 years, she asked me for her entitlement which I also didn't know she wouldn't be getting it in the legal sense as she was the one to resign. I blame myself for not doing my home-work but all the same, I would have given her all that as she was a good helper but I would have felt better if I was not in the dark on these issues.

To FKKC, I suppose it doesn't really matter now, but regarding your old helper, if you mean long service pay by entitlement, then she shouldn't have been entitled to that as she'd worked under 5 years.

Hi Moppet, Reading these threads here do help me understand more of the FDH movement in details as I never bother to check. Guess I was lucky as I haven't encounter any serious problem yet (touch wood). Since we are on the subject of statutory holidays, here was the scene I had with my present helper when she first started nearly 4 years ago......... FKKC: 'do you know that at the beginning of your 3 months, you are not entitled to any holidays except on sundays?' HELPER: ' yes, I am aware of it and it would benefit me to stay home and learn more as I am new in HK'. So we made the wrong arrangement but it turned out we were both happy with me having her to help me during the Chinese New Year Period (wow..3 days) & I guess she prefered to stay in rather than getting a deduction from her salary of which I wasn't aware of until now when Moppet pointed out eitherwise I wouldn't have advised honeypie the way I did...sorry honeypie for giving you the wrong information. FYI, I gave her Christmas off as I know it was important to her and she got a lot of lai-sees (red packets with money) during the CNY period she stayed in to help me out. Funny thing was we were both happy with the arrangement but we were breaking the law at the same time without realizing it! BTW, I will be re-newing her 3rd contract with us in mid-November.

FKKC sorry but employees are legally entitled to statutory holidays in the first three months just not to be paid for it. Personally i would always pay them for the day the same way my husband got paid when he started his job and there was a holiday.

Hi cd I didn't even asked my old helper for the term. All she said (if I remembered correctly) was 'according to the law, I had to pay her a certain sum after she worked past 4 years'. I didn't even bother to check as we had a good relationship and the amount wasn't too much ( I think it was about $8,000). Nevertheless, I would have felt so much happier that I was giving her out of generosity on my part rather than (I thought then) out of a binding responsibilty.

Hi FKKC yes everyone is entitled to all statutory holidays regardless of length of service but in the first 3 months an employer does not have to pay for that day. So yes you could deduct a days salary if you wished. After the three months your helper gets the day off and paid as normal. I believe most people would pay for this day off anyway as it it very little money and it is very hard to ask your helper for a favour if you have done non for them.

Hi how about the employer forced her helper to take the statutory holiday even the helper doesn't want to take it cause she's not yet entitled, then later on the employer deducted the equivalent amount from the helper's salary? Does an employer allows to do that?

The employee is entitled to take the day. The day is NOT entitled for wage. With these 2 logic , find out the compromised solution.