Lawpakgo

The Labour Advisory Board has endorsed a government’s proposal for a
3-day statutory paternity leave. 
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung welcomed the
proposal and said it was in line with the Government’s objective of promoting
family friendly practices.

Under this proposal new fathers will enjoy 4/5 pay during the 3-day
paternity leave.  Although the proposal
is said to be a breakthrough of the long term wrestling between the board representatives
on labour union side and the entrepreneurs side, it is still not as good as the
current civil servants benefit.  Now civil
servants are entitled to have 5 day full paid paternity leave.

Backing to July when the argument of the issue was still hot.  The Deputy Chairman of Federation of HK
Industries claimed that paternity would hazardous to the financial stability of
HK and also linked the paternity leave to the rising debt and budgetary
difficulties in European countries.  
Even now, Ho Sai-chu, the member of Legislative Council and the Life
Honorary Chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, said the paternity
leave should be rather voluntary than compulsory since it would give pressure
on the small enterprises that have only 4 or 5 employees. 

The enterprises are over-reacted to the issue.  According to Matthew Cheung, the extra cost
on imposing the new policy is only 0.02% overall rise in wages.  This minimal cost would be worthwhile as a
social responsibility for strengthening the father’s role in the family and
harmonizing the workforce relationship with the employers. 

Actually, many large organizations in Hong Kong have already
voluntarily provided paternity leave and more employers­¹ are
following the trend. This implies that a general consensus do exist in the
community.  What need now is to put it in
legislation.  

The proposal comparing to the provision in other countries is rather
prudent² and positive though at the beginning it may have some
pressure on the small and medium size enterprises.  But in the long run, it would enhance Hong
Kong competitiveness and attract talents to work in the territory.

In sum, it is a good start to put paternity leave into legislation.  The step to be taken is appropriate and considerate and the cost to society is manageable.  With all the favorable conditions above, paternity leave should get a "Go".

1.  A questionnaires issued by the Labour Department to over a thousand member organizations of its Human Resources Managers Clubs in 2006 and 2008 reveal that 16% and 21% respectively of the organizations have provided paternity leave, indicating an increase in the number of employers providing paternity leave to their employees over the past two years.
2. Please see next post about the paternity leave policies in other countries.