Male employees in private companies can get three days of paternity leave at four-fifths of their average daily wages from March at the soonest after lawmakers gave their approval yesterday. The benefit represents a step down from the seven days of leave at full pay that pan-democrats had proposed. Also vetoed was their proposal to ensure employees would not be fired after telling their bosses of their intentions to take paternity leave. Before the Legislative Council voted on the government's Employment (Amendment) Bill, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung threatened to withdraw it if the lawmakers passed the pan-democrats' amendments. "We need to consider the employers' capability and the employees' interest at the same time," he said. The government has estimated that granting the three days of leave will add 0.02 per cent, or HK$114 million for the whole of Hong Kong, to total employment costs. "Although the additional expenses are not huge, small and medium enterprises will still feel an impact," Cheung said. He also explained why the benefit was not as generous as the five days of paternity leave civil servants had been offered at full pay since 2012. Cheung said that just because the government had the ability to grant the longer leave it did not mean the private sector could also do so. He pledged to review the bill a year after its implementation. Pan-democratic lawmakers, including Labour Party chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and the Democratic Party's Helena Wong Pik-wan, insisted on seven days of leave. "The extra cost will not be big," Lee said. "Even if the paternity leave is seven days, it is still barely enough, not to mention just three days." The Civic Party's Kwok Ka-ki accused the government of trying to "tear society apart" by short-changing non-civil servants. Some pro-government lawmakers supported the government's bill because it had the endorsement of the Labour Advisory Board, whereas the amendments did not. Liberal Party leader Vincent Fang Kang said: "It is not that the small firms cannot afford the extra cost. The thing is they may not be able to find someone else [to stand in for the leave-takers]." After the pan-democrats' amendments were vetoed, they decided to support the bill. Eventually, 52 lawmakers voted for it and no one voted against. Under the approved bill, an employee can take the three days consecutively or separately at any time from four weeks prior to the expected delivery date and up to 10 weeks after the birth. Hong Kong women are entitled to 10 weeks of maternity leave, also paid at 80 per cent of their average daily wages.
