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Director of Hang Ho Seafood Hotpot Restaurant Mr Yeung Sik-wah was fined $20,000 at the Kwun Tong Magistrates' Courts today (September 23) for wage offences under the Employment Ordinance. The prosecution was launched by the Labour Department.
The director failed to pay wages to an 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 $5,000. The director was also ordered to clear the outstanding wages via the court.
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. Upon conviction, the maximum penalty is a fine of $200,000 and imprisonment for one year.
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 efforts in bringing to justice directors and employers who defy the law.
Ends/Friday, September 23, 2005
Issued at HKT 19:31
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