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In response to media enquiries about Asia Television Limited (ATV), a spokesman for the Labour Department (LD) today (April 7) gave the following reply:
The LD today released ex-gratia payment of the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund (PWIF) to the first batch of 25 eligible applicants immediately after verification of their applications was completed. The ex-gratia payment was released in the form of cheques sent by post. The applicants are expected to receive the cheques tomorrow (April 8) at the soonest.
As at April 7, the LD has received about 450 applications for the PWIF ex-gratia payment from former employees of ATV. We will continue to render full assistance to other employees who have left service.
The provisional liquidators of ATV have submitted to the LD the information of 123 employees in three batches between March 17 and April 1, among whom 114 have already filed the PWIF applications. The LD has already reminded the provisional liquidators on many occasions to provide the LD with all the information relating to outstanding payments to the employees concerned as soon as possible. The Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) trustee also provided the LD with the relevant information of 290 employees in two batches on March 29 and April 6, while the Provident Fund Scheme trustee provided the relevant information of 380 employees in three batches between March 29 and April 5.
For cases with all the required information and documents received (including those provided by the provisional liquidators and MPF trustee), the LD will continue to expedite the processing procedures with a view to completing verification and releasing ex-gratia payment to eligible applicants in batches as soon as possible.
As to the investigation and prosecution work relating to wage offences, the LD laid 102 summonses earlier against both ATV and its director. ATV pleaded guilty to all summonses and was fined a cumulative total of $1,070,000. The director concerned was also convicted of 100 summonses after trial and was fined a total of $150,000. We are now seeking legal advice on some cases with investigation completed recently and are collecting further information on the remaining cases. We will contemplate prosecutions should there be sufficient evidence and prosecution witnesses.
Ends/Thursday, April 7, 2016
Issued at HKT 15:48
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