Originally Posted by
ermen
So has this happened? Everyone talks of it but I personally have not known of any cases where a housing allowance is unilaterally stripped away. Existing plans are grandfathered.
Employer can't just fire you without cause, and especially if you did not want to renegotiate a contract.
Employer would be open to a suit of unfair dismissal.
Sure it's happened. Not to me (I never had a housing allowance) but I know of people to whom this happened. And as for firing, of course you can be fired without cause. In at-will employment (which covers pretty much all of HK's finance professionals), you can be fired for no reason at all. They can always claim cost-cutting.
As a matter of fact, if you're going to get fired, it's best to be fired without cause. Being fired with cause means you'll likely get no severance, your record will be tarnished (whatever the cause), and you'll also probably lose any unvested deferred compensation. Being fired without cause (e.g. cost cutting, or an office shutting down) is not a black mark.
As for suing for unfair dismissal because you refused to renegotiate a housing allowance, you're welcome to explore it, but given employment laws, it's going to be a long slog and you're unlikely to win. And employers know this.