Hong Kong Ordinances

EMPLOYEES' COMPENSATION ORDINANCE - SECT 2

Meaning of "employee"

(Past version on 01/07/1997).
(Past version on 30/06/1997).

Adaptation amendments retroactively made - see 56 of 2000 s. 3

(1) In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires, the
expression "employee" (僱員) , subject to section 4 and the proviso to this
subsection, means any person who has, either before or after the commencement
of this Ordinance, entered into or works under a contract of service or
apprenticeship with an employer in any employment, whether by way of manual
labour, clerical work, or otherwise, and whether the contract is expressed or
implied, is oral or in writing: (Amended 11 of 1958 s. 2) Provided that the
following persons are excepted from the definition of

"employee" (僱員) -

   (a)  (Repealed 44 of 1980 s. 3)

   (b)  any person whose employment is of a casual nature, and who is employed
        otherwise than for the purposes of the employer's trade or business,
        not being a person employed for the purposes of any game or recreation
        and engaged or paid through a club and not being a part-time domestic
        helper; or (Amended 63 of 1992 s. 2)

   (c)  an outworker; or

   (d)  a member of the employer's family employed by such employer and who
        resides with the employer. (Amended 55 of 1969 s. 2)

(2) If, in any proceedings for the recovery of compensation under this
Ordinance, it appears to the Court that the contract of service or
apprenticeship under which the injured person was working, at the time when
the accident causing the injury happened, was illegal, the Court may, if
having regard to all the circumstances of the case it thinks proper so to do,
deal with the matter as if the injured person had at the time aforesaid been a
person working under a valid contract of service or apprenticeship.

(3) In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference to
an employee who has been injured shall, where the employee is dead, include a
reference to his legal personal representative, or to the members of his
family or any of them or the Official Administrator or such other officer as
the Chief Executive may appoint to act on behalf of the members of the family
of the employee. (Amended 36 of 1996 s. 2; 52 of 2000 s. 2; 56 of 2000 s. 3)

(4) Where, in any employment, personal injury by accident arising out of and
in the course of the employment is caused to any person, and at the time of
the accident-

   (a)  that person would, but for paragraph (d) of the proviso to subsection
        (1), have been an employee within the meaning of that subsection; and

   (b)  there is in force in relation to that person a policy of insurance
        which indemnifies the employer against liability in respect of such
        injury whether or not the indemnity is for an amount which is less
        than the full amount of the liability in respect of which the employer
        would, under section 40(1), be required to be insured if such person
        were an employee within the meaning of subsection (1), this Ordinance
        shall, notwithstanding paragraph (d) of the proviso to subsection (1),
        apply in relation to that person for all purposes as if he were an
        employee within the meaning of the subsection. (Added 76 of 1982 s. 2)
        (Amended 44 of 1980 s. 15)

"employee" (僱員)