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.
LOL. Yes, in HK a firm can dismiss you without cause - employment contracts are 'at will'. Yes, unfair dismissal exists. In HK, you can go to court & win. But the most a court can award you is your contractual notice period (1 month or 3 months normally) IF you hadn't been paid it (i.e. company dismissed you with no notice payment) And, of course, if you lose, then not only do you not get a payoff, but it is now a matter of public record just why you were fired for cause, with lots of dirty laundry. Oops
So, firing you with no explanation required, but with payment of your contractual notice period, is legal. And yes, it has/ did happen to a number of acquaintances/ colleagues (and as explained above, is preferable for the empoyee, as it can be waved off as redundancy, not being fired)