The Employees' Compensation Ordinance, Cap. 282

Content

If the employer is in doubt about the cause of an employee’s injury or sick leave, he should conduct preliminary investigation as soon as practicable, including interviewing the injured employee to obtain details of the accident, inquiring of the witnesses about the circumstances, assessing the possibility of the work environment leading to the accident, and requesting the attending registered medical practitioner, registered Chinese medicine practitioner or registered dentist of the injured employee to provide a medical report for reference. On the other hand, the employer can contact the insurer for appropriate follow-up action, such as arranging a medical examination to be conducted by a registered medical practitioner, registered Chinese medicine practitioner or registered dentist named by the employer for the injured employee. The employer may also seek professional legal advice. On encountering a suspected fraudulent case, an employer may consider forwarding the evidence collected and other relevant information to the Police for action. If the employer is still in doubt about the work injury case, he may pass his views and the relevant information to the Labour Department. The Labour Department will give its views to both parties on the likelihood of the case being a work injury from the medical point of view and according to the provisions of the Ordinance. Please take note that the Labour Department does not have the authority to make adjudication on any dispute of the case. If the employer and the employee could not reach any settlement with the assistance of the Labour Department, the case shall be determined by the Court.

According to section 15 of the Ordinance, an employer is required to notify the Commissioner for Labour of any work-related accident in the manner set out in the Ordinance, irrespective of whether the accident gives rise to any liability to pay compensation. If employer is in doubt about whether a work injury is work-related or cannot reach a decision over admission of liability, he should inform this department of his query in reporting the injury at work, either by making a note in the Form 2, or attaching a full account of relevant information available to the employer. The Employees’ Compensation Division of the Labour Department would then render our advice and assistance as appropriate.