Employees' Compensation Insurance
   
Q : If someone was injured in a traffic accident whilst he/she was in the course of employment, is he/she entitled to receive compensation from both Employees' Compensation from his/her employer and the Motor vehicle third party Insurance?
A : According to the Common Law, the victim should be entitled to receive an amount of compensation calculated in accordance with his/her total damages. Of course it is his/her own choice to claim from the Employees' Compensation Insurance or the Motor Third Party Insurance. For example, he/she can claim for employees' compensation first and than sue the driver for negligence. The amount received from the employees' compensation would be deducted in calculating the payment from the driver. The employer is also entitled to claim for the employees' compensation paid from the driver. Thus the total amount of compensation to the victim is the same. Nevertheless, the victim can also claim for damages from the driver first. However, court proceedings are quit time-consuming and it may take more time to get the compensation.
   
   
Q : A household employed a part-time amah to perform household cleaning for 3 hours weekly. Is it necessary to arrange an Employees' Compensation policy for this amah?
A : According to the law, employers have to provide a valid employees' compensation insurance to cover his/her employees no matter the time of work involved. The only possible means to avoid such liability is to hire the amah from a domestic helper provider which has the coverage for their amah already.