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Representatives of the Labour and Welfare Bureau, Security Bureau, Labour Department (LD) and Immigration Department (ImmD) had a meeting with Legislative Council (LegCo) members of the labour constituency and Labour Advisory Board (LAB) employee members this morning (December 19).
After the meeting a government spokesman said, "We are very glad that LegCo members of the labour constituency and LAB employee members have agreed to a set of new measures proposed by the Government to further enhance communication between LD and ImmD in processing applications under different labour importation schemes. The LAB employee members have also agreed to resume processing work under the Supplementary Labour Scheme (SLS)."
Under the new measures, the ImmD will require employers making applications under the General Employment Policy (GEP) to declare whether they have submitted SLS applications (whether successful or not) in the 18 months prior to their GEP applications and to provide relevant information. The ImmD will consult the LD on these cases, with a view to preventing employers from trying to apply instead to the ImmD for the same job vacancies under the GEP, after their SLS applications failed. To uphold the policy of safeguarding priority in employment for local workers, the ImmD will also carefully examine the prevailing circumstances of relevant industries and job titles, irrespective of the number of imported workers applied for, in processing the applications. The ImmD will consult the LD on applications offering wage levels obviously lower than those of similar job titles in the labour market, or requesting the importation of a considerable number of workers, or involving job titles with a possible substantial overlap with technician workers admitted under the SLS. We will provide implementation updates three months after the new measures take effect, and conduct a review in six months time.
The government spokesman reiterated that the Administration has kept in close contact with LegCo members of the labour constituency and LAB employee members over the last month or so, in order that the SLS could resume normal operation as soon as possible for use by employers with genuine needs for imported workers. The Government attaches great importance to employment opportunities for local workers, and all various labour importation schemes implemented by the Government are meant to relieve existing manpower shortage experienced by employers, thereby enabling their business operations. Employers should adopt proactive approaches to training local workers, with a view to filling job vacancies in the long run.
Ends/Monday, December 19, 2011
Issued at HKT 18:22
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