ESG-related Legislation and Administrative Arrangements

Environmental (E)

Legislation for Management of Air Quality

• This link will open in a new windowAir Pollution Ordinance (Cap. 311)
  This Ordinance provides for abating, prohibiting and controlling pollution of the atmosphere.
• This link will open in a new windowRoad Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulations (Cap. 374A)
  The Regulations specify emission limits for motor vehicles.
• This link will open in a new windowMotor Vehicle Idling (Fixed Penalty) Ordinance (Cap. 611)
  This Ordinance provides that the driver of a motor vehicle must not cause or permit the vehicle to be idling on a road for more than 3 minutes in any 60-minute period.

Legislation for Management of Wastes

• This link will open in a new windowWaste Disposal Ordinance (Cap. 354)
  This Ordinance provides for the control and regulation of the production, storage, collection and disposal including the treatment, reprocessing and recycling of waste.

Legislation for Management of Water Quality

• This link will open in a new windowWater Pollution Control Ordinance (Cap. 358)
  This Ordinance provides for controlling the pollution of the waters of Hong Kong.

Legislation for Control of Hazardous Chemicals

• This link will open in a new windowOzone Layer Protection Ordinance (Cap. 403)
  This Ordinance controls the production, import and export of products containing ozone-depleting substances, and recycling of ozone-depleting substances.
• This link will open in a new windowHazardous Chemical Control Ordinance (Cap. 595)
  This Ordinance regulates, through an activity-based permit system, the import, export, manufacture and use of non-pesticide hazardous chemicals that have potentially harmful or adverse effects on human health or the environment.

Legislation for Product Eco-responsibility

• This link will open in a new windowProduct Eco-responsibility Ordinance (Cap. 603)
  This Ordinance provides for introducing measures to minimize the environmental impact of certain types of products.

Legislation for Control of Mercury

• This link will open in a new windowMercury Control Ordinance (Cap. 640)
  This Ordinance regulates the import, export, keeping and use of mercury, mercury mixtures and mercury compound.

Social (S)

Legislation related to Employees’ Rights & Benefits

• This link will open in a new windowEmployees’ Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282)
  This Ordinance provides for the payment of compensation to employees who are injured in the course of their employment. It establishes a no-fault, non-contributory employee compensation system for work injuries.
• This link will open in a new windowMinimum Wage Ordinance (Cap. 608)
  This Ordinance provides for a minimum wage at an hourly rate for certain employees. It establishes a Statutory Minimum Wage regime aimed at striking an appropriate balance between forestalling excessively low wages and minimising the loss of low-paid jobs while sustaining Hong Kong’s economic growth and competitiveness.

Legislation related to Employment & Labour Relations

• This link will open in a new windowLabour Relations Ordinance (Cap. 55)
  This Ordinance provides for improvement of labour-management relations and the settlement of trade disputes.
• This link will open in a new windowEmployment Ordinance (Cap. 57)
  This Ordinance is the main piece of legislation governing conditions of employment in Hong Kong. It covers a comprehensive range of employment protection and benefits for employees including wage protection, rest days, holidays with pay, paid annual leave, sickness allowance, maternity protection, statutory paternity leave, severance payment, long service payment, employment protection, termination of employment contract and protection against anti-union discrimination.
  • This link will open in a new windowEmployment of Children Regulations (Cap. 57B)
    The Regulations govern the employment of children in all economic sectors. A child means a person under the age of 15 years.
  • This link will open in a new windowEmployment of Young Persons (Industry) Regulations (Cap. 57C)
    The Regulations regulate the hours of work and the general conditions of employment of young persons in industrial undertakings. A young person means a person of or over the age of 15 years but under the age of 18 years.

Legislation related to Occupational Safety & Health

• This link will open in a new windowFactories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance (Cap. 59)
  This Ordinance provides for the safety and health protection to workers in the industrial sector. It applies to factories, construction sites, catering establishments, cargo and container handling undertakings, repair workshops and other industrial workplaces.
• This link will open in a new windowOccupational Safety and Health Ordinance (Cap. 509)
  This Ordinance provides for the safety and health protection to employees in workplaces, both industrial and non-industrial.

Legislation related to Anti-discrimination

• This link will open in a new windowSex Discrimination Ordinance (Cap. 480)
  It is unlawful under this Ordinance to discriminate against a person on the ground of sex, marital status, pregnancy or breastfeeding in prescribed areas of activities.
• This link will open in a new windowDisability Discrimination Ordinance (Cap. 487)
  This Ordinance renders unlawful certain acts which discriminate against a person on the ground of disability when committed in prescribed areas of activities.
• This link will open in a new windowFamily Status Discrimination Ordinance (Cap. 527)
  Under this Ordinance, it is unlawful to discriminate against a person on the ground of family status. "Family status" means the status of having a responsibility for the care of an immediate family member, and "immediate family member".
• This link will open in a new windowRace Discrimination Ordinance (Cap. 602)
  This Ordinance protects people against discrimination, harassment, and vilification on the ground of their race. Victimisation is also unlawful under the Ordinance. "Race" means the race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin of a person.

Other Relevant Legislation

• This link will open in a new windowMandatory Provident Fund Scheme Ordinance (Cap. 485)
  This is the principal legislation to provide the framework for the establishment of a system of privately managed, employment-related mandatory provident fund (MPF) schemes to accrue MPF benefits for members of the workforce when they retire.
• This link will open in a new windowImmigration Ordinance (Cap. 115)
  (in respect of Part IVB which prohibits the employment of illegal immigrants)
• This link will open in a new windowOccupational Retirement Schemes Ordinance (Cap. 426)

Governance (G)

• This link will open in a new windowPrevention of Bribery Ordinance (Cap. 201)
  This is a piece of legislation in that it covers corruption in both the public and private sectors; catches bribes of any value and of any kind; and penalises both the demand and supply sides of corruption prohibiting the offering, soliciting and accepting of bribes. Bribe offerors and acceptors are equally liable under the law.
• This link will open in a new windowPersonal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486)
  This Ordinance is applicable to both the private and the public sectors. It is technology-neutral and principle-based. The collective objective of Data Protection Principles provided in the Ordinance is to ensure that personal data is collected on a fully-informed basis and in a fair manner, with due consideration towards minimising the amount of personal data collected. Once collected, the personal data should be processed in a secure manner and should only be kept for as long as necessary for the fulfillment of the purposes of using the data. Use of the data should be limited to or related to the original collection purpose. Data subjects are given the right to access and make correction to their data.