The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Faculty of Law
Term One 2015-2016 Examination
Course code and title :
LAWS6047 Principles of Employment Law
Date
:
19 December 2015
Time
:
2:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Time allowed
:
Three (3) hours
This paper has SIX (6) pages (including this cover page).
Do not take this paper away from the examination venue.
This is an OPEN BOOK examination, limited as specified in item 7 below.
Instructions to candidates:
1. Write your student ID number and seat number on the cover page of your answer
books and on any supplementary sheets. Do not write your name on the answer
books or on any supplementary sheets.
2. This examination paper consists of two parts. Part A consists of ONE (1) question and
Part B consists of TWO (2) questions. You must Answer Part A and ANY ONE (1)
question from Part B.
3. Start your answer to each question on a new sheet of paper.
4. You are expected to know and abide by the University’s plagiarism policy. If you
take ideas or language from any source you must provide clear attribution.
Copying another person’s work or using language or ideas without proper attribution
can lead to your failure of the course and the entire degree programme.
5. Do not leave the examination venue during the first 30 minutes or during the last 15
minutes of the examination.
6. At the end of the examination, return this examination paper together with your
answer books and any supplementary sheets.
7. You may use the following authorized materials:
a. Copies of legislation which you may highlight/underline attach tabs but without
annotations,
b. 10 sheets (20sides) of A4 paper, stapled together and numbered, on which you
may write or print as you choose,
c. a basic calculator, and
d. Unannotated language dictionaries (except electronic dictionaries).
Legal
dictionaries are not permitted.
DO NOT TURN THIS PAGE UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO
Page 1 of 6
Part A (60 marks)
You MUST answer this question.
Question 1
Sole-mates is a small shoe shop in Causeway Bay selling women’s sports shoes. Sole-mates
does not operate any other shops besides the one in Causeway Bay. One of its employees is
Wendy. Since 1st September 2013, Wendy has been employed as a junior salesperson at
“Sole-mates”.
Wendy enjoyed working at Sole-mates. However a few months ago, Wendy received an
attractive job offer from another shoe shop named Stanley’s Sports Shoes for the position of
senior salesperson and with a slightly higher salary. Wendy thought that this would be a good
opportunity to build up her career and on 30th September 2015, Wendy gave Sole-mates
notice that she was terminating her employment. Soul-mates agreed that Wendy could leave
immediately and paid Wendy her September 2015 salary.
The next day, Wendy started work at Stanley’s Sports Shoes. Wendy’s new job did not go
well at all. When Wendy arrived at work she was shocked to learn that even though she had
the title of senior salesperson, it turned out that she was the only salesperson and had to do all
of the work herself. Stanley’s Sports Shoes was very under-staffed. To make matters worse,
there were many more customers at Stanley’s Sports Shoes than at her old job and she found
that she ended up having to work twice as hard. Wendy immediately raised these problems
with her manager at Stanley’s Sports Shoes but the manager just rudely told her to stop
complaining and get back to work.
After 1 week of work, Wendy decided that this was a terrible job and quit. Wendy
immediately returned to Sole-mates to ask if she could have her old job back.
Unfortunately, Sole-mates had already filled Wendy’s old position. However, there was a
shop cleaner position open that Wendy could have until another salesperson position became
available. Since Wendy needed the money, she agreed and signed a new employment
contract with Sole-mates.
A copy of Wendy’s employment contract is provided below:
Employment Contract
Sole-mates Ltd. (the Employer) and Wendy Lee (the Employee) agree to the following
terms of employment:
1. The Employee will work Mondays to Fridays. Working hours will be from 9am to
1pm and 2pm to 6pm each working day. Lunch hour (unpaid) will be from 1pm to
2pm.
2. The Employee’s duties shall include: mopping the floors, dusting shelves, vacuuming,
emptying the rubbish bins, cleaning toilets and other cleaning related matters assigned
to her by the shop manager.
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LAWS6047 Principles of Employment Law Term One 2015/16
3. The Employee’s salary will be HK$240 per day.
4. Either party may terminate this contract immediately by giving the other side notice at
any time. Apart from outstanding wages, no other benefits will be provided by the
Employer to the Employee upon termination.
5. After termination of this contract, the Employee cannot work for any other (i) shoe
store, (ii) supermarket, (iii) bank, or (iv) university in Hong Kong, Japan or the United
States for a period of 25 years.
Date: 8th October 2015
Signed by the Employer: Jimmy Wong (on behalf of Sole-mates Ltd)
Signed by the Employee: Wendy Lee
Wendy started working at Sole-mates again on 9th October 2015. Although her new job was a
demotion from before, she was still grateful to receive a salary.
Unfortunately, a week later Sole-mates gave the following notice to all the employees:
Important Notice (URGENT)
Dated: 16th October 2015.
To all employees,
As you all know, the owner of Sole-mates is Mr. Jimmy Wong. Sole-mates is sad to
announce that Mr. Jimmy Wong’s father recently passed away in London.
Due to this family emergency, Mr. Jimmy Wong will need to move back to London
permanently and is closing Sole-mates immediately.
Please treat this as the notice of termination, effective immediately. We thank all employees
for their hard work and wish the best for all of you.
Yours sincerely,
Sole-mates
Wendy received her daily wages up until 16th October 2015, which was her last day of work.
A few days later, Wendy was discussing her situation with her friends and they told her that
she had been deprived of a number of employment rights. Wendy is concerned about any
employment law issues arising from the above facts and has come to you for advice.
Advise Wendy as to rights with respect to employment law.
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LAWS6047 Principles of Employment Law Term One 2015/16
Part B (40 marks)
This part has two questions. Answer only ONE question from this part.
Question 2
Amy recently returned to Hong Kong after successfully completing her undergraduate degree
in music (singing) at a top university in South Korea. It is Amy’s dream to become a famous
singer and celebrity one day.
Last month she saw the following advertisement in a local newspaper:
ABC Music Studios
*Hiring*
ABC Music Studios is a leading producer of Hong Kong pop music and singing groups.
With the recent surge in popularity of Korean boy bands and girl bands, ABC Music Studios
is currently looking for potential stars to join its new all-girl band, THE INCHEONS. This
new all-girl singing band will blend Korean / Hong Kong popular music with fabulous
dancing to be marketed to the youth market.
HIRING Musician: Singer / dancer
The Incheons is currently seeking a qualified candidate as a singer / dancer as the fourth and
final member of the all-girl singing group.
Job responsibilities and requirements:
• Minimum 3 years of professional experience or a degree in singing or dancing;
•
Strong familiarity of current Korean and Hong Kong pop music;
•
The candidate will be asked to perform before live audiences and there will be
substantial marketing in local media. Therefore the applicant must be physically very
attractive, have good personal skills and be able to greet and chat with audience
members from time to time after performances;
discrimination
•
Important. Applicant must be female, under the age of 30, and be of Korean
ethnicity.
Qualified applicants should send their up to date resume and a photograph of their face to the
band manager at ABC Music Studios.
Amy was very excited to see this advertisement as she had studied in Korea and was very
familiar with Korean and Hong Kong pop music. Amy always thought that she was very
attractive and her mother is Korean (her father is Chinese) so she felt that she met all of the
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LAWS6047 Principles of Employment Law Term One 2015/16
no employee status issue
job requirements. She immediately submitted an application. She attended an interview and
singing audition with the band manager and was hired by ABC Music Studios.
breach of relationship?
Amy found the job to be extremely difficult. The band manager was very strict in running the
band and would often scream and use insults to scold Amy and the other band members.
Since Amy was still quite new at the job she would often make mistakes in her dancing and,
when she did, the manager would be extremely angry at her and scold her loudly in front of
the other band members.
possible, safe place of work?
Last week, the band was rehearsing in their studio to prepare for a very important upcoming
performance on a local television show. During the rehearsal Amy accidentally tripped over
and tore a large hole in her costume. The costume was completely ruined. This infuriated the
manager, who screamed at her:
duty to pay for damaged property?
breach of trust and confidence
“You clumsy, stupid idiot! You are an absolutely useless and low class human
being! You are an ugly creature who cannot even dance to a simple beat! Are
you deliberately trying to ruin this band? We have an extremely important
performance coming up and you still cannot do the job! I should make you a
stage cleaner, which is all that you are capable of doing except you would
probably mess that up too!
unlawful deduction of wages
I am going to deduct the cost of that HK$5,000 costume from your wages this
month. I am also going to deduct HK$500 as punishment for wasting my time
with your stupidity. Get out of my studio and I do not want you dancing with
the other girls until you have apologized to me for your incompetence. Now
get out!”
unreasonable order by employer
Amy was sent home that day. Amy was very offended by how the manager treated her and
she thought that his behavior was completely inappropriate. When she returned to the studio
the next day, she refused to apologize to the manager. Accordingly, the manager told Amy to
sit in a corner in the studio and do nothing while he continued to rehearse with the other 3
band members. Amy ended up sitting in the studio all day doing nothing. When the rehearsal
employer breach duty to provide work, EE applied for job for a specific work
ended, she went home.
to dance sing,
The next day the same thing happened again. Amy arrived at work, refused to apologize, and
was sent to sit in a corner without any work for the day.
employer’s failure to provide work
This has now continued for a week. Today Amy received her salary but there was a deduction
of HK$5,000 for damage done to her costume and another deduction of HK$500 described as
a general penalty. The manager says that he will go ahead with 3 performers in the band until
she decides to apologize.
Amy is very concerned about any employment law issues arising from the above facts and
has come to you for advice.
Advise Amy as to rights with respect to employment law.
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LAWS6047 Principles of Employment Law Term One 2015/16
Question 3
Billy has been working for the last 6 years as a tennis instructor at the Lantau Island Sports
Club. The Club offers a variety of sports facilities (gym, swimming, running track, tennis and
basketball courts) for its members to use. There is no written contract between Billy and the
Club. Back when Billy started, he simply filled in an application form to be a personal trainer
at the club and was told that his application had been accepted.
employment status?
The working arrangements were as follows.
The Club puts the photos and names of all of its tennis instructors at the entrance lobby for its
members to see. Whenever a member wants to hire Billy, that member would book him by
the hour. The Club would then charge the member’s account HK$500/hour for use of the
Golf club personal trainer. After the Club collected the money from the member, it would distribute
half of that money to the tennis instructor. The Club did not set any working hours and it was
entirely up to Billy whether he would work on any particular day and how long he would
work. Billy was free to walk around the club facilities and approach members to chat, give
demonstrations and see if they would like to hire him as a tennis trainer. The Club did not set
any requirements about what teaching techniques Billy used as long as the members were
happy with his service. When Billy was working, he was required to wear a shirt with the
Club logo and a name-tag with his staff number displayed prominently. The Club would
provide tennis balls and the tennis court, but Billy and the members would provide their own
tennis racquets.
The Club is located in a remote area on Lantau Island and there are no nearby restaurants.
Although the Club had a canteen, it became common practice for the instructors and other
staff of the Club to drive 15 minutes to a nearby village to eat something different for lunch
instead. The Club was aware of this practice and allowed it.
Last Monday, Billy had just finished a training session with a member named Johnny. As it
was 1pm, Billy and Johnny decided to go eat lunch together and discuss Johnny’s tennis
progress. They decided to ride together in Billy’s car. Unfortunately, they were involved in a
traffic accident. Billy was driving on the usual road to the village when his car suddenly went
out of control, mounted the pavement and struck a street light. Both Billy and Johnny were
taken to the hospital. Johnny was seriously injured and Billy suffered a cut to his head but the
doctor said that it was not serious and Billy would fully recover.
Advise the Club as to its liability with respect to employment law.
*** LAST PAGE ***
*** END OF EXAMINATION PAPER***
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LAWS6047 Principles of Employment Law Term One 2015/16
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