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"Operators of employment agencies (EAs) are reminded to conduct their business in compliance with the law, or else they will face prosecution or risk their licences being revoked or refused to be renewed," a spokesman for the Labour Department (LD) said today (November 18).
The LD has recently revoked the licences of two EAs, namely Foreign Domestic Workers Association of America Limited and Hopemay Limited, upon their operator/licensee being respectively considered not a fit and proper person for operating an EA during the investigation of an overcharging complaint and convicted for operating without a valid licence. Furthermore, the LD has refused to renew the licence of an EA named Bagus Employment Agency after its licensee was convicted of doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice.
"Under the Employment Ordinance, the Commissioner for Labour may refuse to issue or renew, or may revoke, a licence if the EA operator has contravened any provision of Part XII of the said Ordinance or the Employment Agency Regulations, or if he has been convicted of an offence involving membership of a triad society, fraud, dishonesty or extortion, or, for any other reason, he is considered not a fit and proper person to operate an EA," a spokesman for the LD said.
"Anyone who wishes to provide job-placement services must obtain a licence issued by the LD. They are prohibited from charging a job seeker any reward, payment or other advantage in respect of expenses directly or indirectly in connection with having obtained, obtaining or seeking to obtain an employment for him or her other than the prescribed commission, which is currently set at 10 per cent of the first month salary of the job seeker upon successful placement. An EA that operates without a valid licence or overcharges job seekers may be liable for an offence and subject to a maximum penalty of $50,000 upon conviction," the spokesman said.
For enquiries or complaints on unlicensed operation or overcharging job seekers' commission by EAs, please call the Employment Agencies Administration of the LD at 2852 3535, or visit its office at 12/F, Harbour Building, 38 Pier Road, Central, Hong Kong.
Ends/Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Issued at HKT 12:41
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