Hong Kong gov’t workers granted up to 12 hours of annual family care leave from January

Hong Kong government employees have been granted up to 12 hours of annual family care leave from January 2027 under a new initiative to promote family-friendly workplaces.

The Civil Service Bureau said in a document submitted to the Legislative Council on Wednesday that all government employees, including civil servants and those appointed on non-civil service terms, could take leave to take care of family matters from January, such as accompanying their family members to medical appointments, attending parent-teacher meetings at their children’s school, and attending to household emergencies.

While employees may take up to 12 hours of leave per year, they can apply for between one and four hours on each occasion, according to the document, which added that untaken leave could not be carried forward to the following year.

Employees will need to submit an advance application form without requiring documentary proof, a measure proposed by the bureau to streamline approval procedures.

“If the approving authority has any reasonable doubt about the application or sees any signs of abuse of family care leave, he/she may request the applicant to produce documentary proof, and accept various forms of documentation, such as medical certificate, attendance slip, school notice, etc.,” the document reads.

The city’s leader John Lee laid out plans to establish family care leave for all government employees in his 2026 Policy Address in September – part of a series of measures to promote fertility, including the extension of one-off baby bonuses and increased child tax allowances.

The bureau is finalising the details of the scheme ahead of staff consultations, with the leave expected to take effect in January.

In 2025, the government introduced childcare leave, allowing eligible employees with children under the age of three to take up to three days of leave annually.

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Irene Chan is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press and has an interest in covering political and social change. She previously worked at Initium Media as chief editor for Hong Kong news and was a community organiser at the Society for Community Organisation serving the underprivileged. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Fudan University and a master’s degree in social work from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Irene is the recipient of two Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards and three honourable mentions for her investigative, feature and video reporting. She also received a Human Rights Press Award for multimedia reporting and an honourable mention for feature writing.