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The Labour Department has reminded employers to take out employees' compensation insurance policies for their employees, including full-time, part-time and casual staff. Otherwise, they would be in breach of the law and could face prosecution.
"In the first nine months of this year, the number of convictions in respect of employers' failure to take out employees' compensation insurance policies or failure to produce the policies for inspection reached 701," Senior Labour Officer (Labour Inspection), Mr Ip Yee-cheung, said.
"Labour inspectors conduct regular workplace inspections to check employers' compliance with the compulsory insurance requirement under the Employees' Compensation Ordinance. In the first nine months of this year, we conducted 46,960 workplace inspections to enforce the law," Mr Ip said.
"Apart from routine inspections, we mounted two special inspection campaigns this year - one in relation to the personal services trade, which operates on a smaller scale such as beauty salons, hair salons and foot massage shops from April to June, the other for private tutorial schools during their peak months from July to August - to check if employers have taken out employee insurance policies.
"The special campaigns covered 4,489 target establishments and 163 employers were found to have not taken out employee compensation insurance policies or were unable to produce insurance policies for inspection. The department would prosecute these employers," Mr Ip said.
An employer is in general liable to pay compensation under the Employees' Compensation Ordinance if an employee sustains an injury or dies as a result of an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, or suffers incapacity arising from prescribed occupational diseases. The ordinance also requires employers to take out insurance policies to cover their liabilities both under the ordinance and the common law.
Employers failing to take out insurance cover for their employees will face prosecution and upon conviction, will be subject to a maximum fine of $100,000 and imprisonment for two years.
Mr Ip advised employees to call the Complaint Hotline of the department's Labour Inspection Division on 2815 2200 if they suspect that their employers have not taken out insurance cover for them. All complaints will be handled in strict confidence.
Ends/Sunday, October 9, 2005
Issued at HKT 10:32
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