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Director of Macro Regent Limited trading as Star Harbour View Restaurant Mr Lam Chung-kin was fined $10,000 today (July 28) at the Kwun Tong Magistrates' Courts for wage offences under the Employment Ordinance. The prosecution was launched by the Labour Department.
The director failed to pay wages to one employee within seven days of the expiry of the wage period and the termination of employment as required by the ordinance. The amount of wages involved was about $6,000.
Section 64B of the Employment Ordinance stipulates that where any wage payment offence committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, the director, manager, secretary or other similar officer shall be guilty of a like offence. The maximum penalty for the offence has been raised to a fine of $350,000 and imprisonment for three years.
Company directors had a personal responsibility to ensure that wages are paid to employees in accordance with the Employment Ordinance, a spokesman for the Labour Department said.
The Labour Department will not tolerate wage offences and will spare no effort in bringing to justice directors and employers who defy the law.
Ends/Friday, July 28, 2006
Issued at HKT 19:07
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