Employees' Compensation Insurance

What is required by law?
Working from Home issue
Claims
Examples of Products Available

The Employees' Compensation Ordinance of Hong Kong (Chapter 282 of the Laws of Hong Kong) applies to all full time or part-time employees who are employed under contracts of service or apprenticeship.

The law applies to Hong Kong based employers who have employees employed in and outside Hong Kong.

All Hong Kong based employers are required to take out insurance policies to cover their liabilities both under

the EC Ordinance and
at common law

for injuries or illnesses sufferred by employees on account of their work.

For Domestic helpers it is important to check if your plan covers 'working overseas'.

if your helper(s) accompany you on a trip. In Hong Kong, very few insurers actually give this protection.. unlike business insurance policies.

Irrespective of whether an accident or occupational disease will result in ANY liability to pay compensation, Section 15 of the Ordinance requires employers to notify the Commisisoner of Labour as follows:

Affliction	Resulting in	Notice Period	Form
Work Injury	Incapacity for less than 3 days	Within 14 days	Form 2B
	Incapacity for greater than 3 days	Within 14 days	Form 2
	Death	Within 7 days	Form 2
Occupational Disease	Incapacity	Within 14 days	Form 2A
Occupational Disease	Death	Within 7 days	Form 2A

Any employer who fails without reasonable excuse to meet the deadlines as above, is liable to a fine of up to HKD50,000.

No insurer can be forced to accept your application

There is no requirement of an insurer to have to accept your application..

You could be a small business working from home, or a staff aged over 65 or perhaps a company involved in evacuating injured people by helicopter, or a company involved in blasting rock at a quarry, for example.. In such instances the insurer is quite within its rights to decline your application.

There is however, recourse via the Employees' Compensation Insurance Residual Schemes Bureau Ltd. (ECIRSB), which is accountable to help in finding a willing insurer, but only after we can prove your application has been declined by 3 companies.

In our experience, in helping arrange cover this way, the elapsed time it taken to have cover in place, has been around 3 months on average!

The ECIRSB will ask you to provide proof of your Claim history for the latest past five years issued by insurance companies. In the bsence of these, you / your staff, will be asked to make statutory declarations.

You will also be asked to provide your company's latest

Audit report
Latest income statement
Latest profit tax return

ECIRSB Application form and reference

No documents found

Levels of Compensation:

Revised Levels of Compensations under ECO with effect from 15 April 2021
No.	Items under ECO	Previous Levels	Revised Levels with effect from 15 April 2021
1	Ceiling of the monthly earnings (for calculating compensation for death and permanent total incapacity)	HK$ 30,530	HK$ 35,600
2	Minimum amount of compensation for death	HK$ 440,200	HK$ 473,610
3	Minimum amount of compensation for permanent total incapacity	HK$ 499,840	HK$ 537,780
4	Compensation for employees requiring attention by another person	HK$ 599,230	HK$ 644,710
5	Minimum amount of surcharge on late payment of compensation 5.1 Initial surcharge 5.2 Further surcharge	HK$ 710 HK$ 1,430	HK$ 760 HK$ 1,540
6	Maximum amount of funeral expenses	HK$ 87,330	HK$ 92,670
7	Maximum amount of the cost of supplying and fitting a prosthesis or surgical appliance	HK$ 41,750	HK$ 44,300
8	Maximum amount of the cost of the repair and renewal of a prosthesis or surgical appliance	HK$ 126,490	HK$ 134,220
9	Minimum monthly earnings (for calculating periodical payments during work injury sick leave)	HK$ 4,500	HK$ 5,310

Issue of Small Businesses/Charities and Staff working from Home

There is no insurer of which we are aware, that is comfortable to provide employees' compensation cover for any employee working from home.

The reason is that the insurer can not be sure if you were actually working the time you were injured, or you were playing ball with your dog.

For larger companies, COVID 19 has meant more insurers are now willing to endorse their policies to allow working from home under certain conditions. To have this cover, make sure that your policy is suitably endorsed.

What to do in the event of an Employees' Compensation Claim

If any of your employees is/are injured at work resulting in fatal or serious injuries, call us immediately on 2530 2530. IF it happens after office hours, please call :

Romi Gill +852 9094 8602,

Tess Suliwan +852 98011009 or

Robin Brown +8520 5917 2530

We may need to send an adjuster to investigate the accident right away.

Where possible, take photographs of the accident scene immediately after the accident and submit them to us.

Whether the injury is serious or not, obtain either:

The Form 2 or
Form 2B from this site or any Labour Department Offices.

Complete either of the Forms in duplicate and send the original to the Labour Department with a copy to us. (Claims@navigator-insurance.com)

There is no need to fill out any claim form.

Claims for sick leave with less than 7 days and not Involving Permanent Disability , you may settle the Compensation with the Employee, in Accordance to the Formula set by the Labour Department.

Upon settlement, arrange the employee to sign against the agreed settlement, as stated on the Form 2 or Form 2B.

For the insurers claim settlement process, submit to us the following:

A copy of the Form 2 or Form 2B which bears the original signature of the employee, confirming his acceptance of the settlement amount.
All original sick leave certificates
All original medical receipts

Exceeding Claims for 7 days with sick leave and not Involving Permanent Disability , US to submit the following:

Form 5 - Certificate of Compensation Assessment, if any
All original sick leave certificates
All original medical receipts

For Permanent Disability Claims Involving , submit the Original of the Following Documents to us immediately They available:

Form 7 - Certificate of Assessment
Form 5 - Certificate of Compensation Assessment
All original sick leave certificates
All original medical expenses receipts

Generally, Employees' Compensation insurance is provided as a part of an office, shop, clinic or general business *(covering wharehouse stock etc) policy. It can however, be purchased as a stand alone policy, though it may well be cheaper if you buy it as a part of a package. The reason is that insurers generally lose money on Employees' Compensation cover, but can make up some, by providing cover for your office or shop contents etc.

Some examples of stand alone policies available are as below: