Two Hong Kong employers sanctioned over labour scheme violations
Hong Kong's Labour Department imposed administrative sanctions on two employers for breaching rules under the Supplementary Labour Optimisation Scheme, including submitting false numbers of local staff and failing to maintain the required 2:1 local-to-imported worker ratio.
Hong Kong — The Labour Department has imposed administrative sanctions on two employers for breaching the requirements of the Supplementary Labour Optimisation Scheme, the department announced on 27 October.
A department spokesman said in a statement that after investigations, the department confirmed the two companies had violated the scheme's rules after importing workers through it.
The violations included submitting false information to the Labour Department regarding the number of full-time local employees, and failing to continuously meet the required staffing ratio of two full-time local employees for every imported worker.
The spokesman stressed that employers applying to import workers under the optimisation scheme must strictly comply with its requirements, including giving priority to hiring suitable local workers.
Under the scheme, if employers violate labour or immigration laws, the scheme's rules or the standard employment contract, the Labour Department can impose administrative sanctions. These include suspending processing of an employer's pending applications, revoking approvals already granted for importing workers, and refusing to process any subsequent applications from the employer.
The announcement did not name the two employers or specify when the sanctions took effect.