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Each government employee will be entitled to up to 12 hours of family care leave annually, with leave granted on an hourly basis.
The HKSAR Government plans to introduce a new family care leave arrangement for government employees from January 2027 as part of broader efforts to help staff balance work and family responsibilities.
According to a paper submitted to the Legislative Council by the Civil Service Bureau, government employees will be eligible for up to 12 hours of family care leave per year, making it the fourth category of leave related to family needs after marriage leave, compassionate leave, and childcare leave.
Under the proposal, employees will be able to take family care leave on an hourly basis to deal with family-related matters, including accompanying family members to medical appointments, attending parent-teacher meetings at their children’s school, or handling household emergencies.
Employees may apply for between one and four hours of leave on each occasion. Any unused entitlement cannot be carried forward to the following year.
To encourage uptake and minimise administrative burdens, the Government plans to adopt a streamlined approval process.
Under normal circumstances, employees will only need to submit an application record form stating the reason for the leave prior to taking family care leave and will not be required to provide supporting documentation.
In emergency situations, employees may seek verbal or other forms of provisional approval before submitting paperwork afterwards.
However, managers may request supporting documents, such as medical certificates, attendance slips, or school notices, if they have reasonable concerns about an application or possible misuse of the leave arrangement.
The new measure was first announced in the 2026 Policy Address and is currently being finalised by the Civil Service Bureau following consultation with staff representatives. The arrangement will apply to both civil servants and employees appointed on non-civil service terms regardless of their terms of appointment and duration of service.
Separately, the Government said it will continue encouraging departments that have not fully implemented a five-day work week to explore ways of extending the arrangement in a pragmatic manner through the use of technology and operational improvements.
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