Labour Advisory Board members today discussed the Government’s proposal on increasing progressively the number of statutory holidays to align with that of general holidays.

At present, the Employment Ordinance provides employees with 12 days of statutory holidays each year as statutory benefits. On the other hand, the General Holidays Ordinance specifies 17 days of general holidays, in addition to Sundays.

The Government proposes that statutory holidays be increased by one day in every two years until the total number of statutory holidays matches that of general holidays.

It noted that members gained a thorough understanding of the proposal through today’s meeting and will consult the trades and organisations they represent later.

The Government will convene another board meeting shortly to discuss the proposal further and it will then consult the Legislative Council Panel of Manpower.

Depending on the outcome of deliberations, it will work on the enabling legislation in a bid to introduce it into the council within 2021.

Subject to smooth passage of the enabling legislation, the Government aims to designate the first additional statutory holiday in 2022 and achieve alignment of the number of statutory holidays and general holidays by 2030.

The proposal is one of the 10 new initiatives on improving people's livelihood announced by the Chief Executive in January.