People with dementia are under the protection of Employment Ordinance (Cap 57) like the others to enjoy the rest days, holidays with paid leave including sick leave and annual leave (Department of Justice, 2019a). Although there is no stipulation on unpaid leave under the Employment Ordinance (Cap 57), employees can discuss with their employers to take unpaid leave due to illness. No special arrangement for dementia or other illness on the leave arrangement is found.

For carers of people with dementia, there is no legal obligation for employers to offer special leave arrangements due to illness of family members or other family reasons. In most cases, carers must apply for annual leave (i.e., paid leave) if they have to accompany the person with dementia or to handle other urgent family matters. If carers have used up their entitled annual leaves, they may need to apply for unpaid leave after discussing with their employers. Some enterprises in Hong Kong offer paid personal, caretaking and/or compassionate leaves to their employees. Yet, there is no statistics about the prevalence of such leave arrangement and its coverage.

References:

Department of Justice. (2019a). Cap. 57 Employment Ordinance. Hong Kong: Department of Justice, HKSAR Retrieved from https://www.elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap57.