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ESG-related Legislation and Administrative Arrangements

Environmental (E)

Legislation for Management of Air Quality

Legislation for Management of Wastes

  • Waste 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

Legislation for Control of Hazardous Chemicals

  • Ozone 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.
  • Hazardous 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

Legislation for Control of Mercury

Social (S)

Legislation related to Employees’ Rights & Benefits

  • Employees’ 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.
  • Minimum 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

  • Labour Relations Ordinance (Cap. 55)
    This Ordinance provides for improvement of labour-management relations and the settlement of trade disputes.
  • Employment 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.

Legislation related to Occupational Safety & Health

Legislation related to Anti-discrimination

  • Sex 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.
  • Disability 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.
  • Family 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".
  • Race 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

Governance (G)

  • Prevention 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.
  • Personal 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.