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Six former employees of Hang Ho Seafood Hot Pot Restaurants were fined a total of $25,000 today (September 26) at the Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts for providing false information in the application for the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund (PWIF).
The Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said that this was the first time the Labour Department had launched a prosecution under the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Ordinance.
Mr Cheung stressed that the Labour Department was determined to weed out any possible abuse of the PWIF and would not tolerate any person providing false information.
When the six former employees of the Hang Ho Restaurants in To Kwa Wan and Western District applied for ex-gratia payments from the PWIF, they claimed wages in arrears, ranging from one week to one month. The amount of wages owed ranged from $4,050 to $15,500.
However, when the Wage Security Division of the Labour Department conducted an investigation, it was found that the actual amount of wages owed was from two days to half a month only.
"The Labour Department takes a very serious view on any attempt to defraud the PWIF. If there is sufficient evidence and the individual concerned is prepared to come forward as a prosecution witness, we will not hesitate to prosecute. Employers and employees must not defy the law," he said.
Under the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Ordinance, anyone who makes a false statement or provides a false document for the purposes of the ordinance commits an offence and is liable to a maximum fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for three months.
"A special task force comprising representatives of the Labour Department, the Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB), the Official Receiver's Office (ORO) and the Legal Aid Department was set up in November, 2002 to combat possible abuse of the PWIF," Mr Cheung said.
Up to August this year, the Labour Department has referred 73 cases to the task force. The CCB has so far arrested 54 people in eight cases with a director and an employee being convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment respectively. Among the 65 other cases, the CCB and ORO are investigating 50 and for the remaining 15 cases, investigations have ceased because of insufficient evidence.
Ends/Monday, September 26, 2005
Issued at HKT 17:58
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