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LCQ10: Underpayment of wages to foreign domestic helpers
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     Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (March 9):

Question:

     Regarding the written question on underpayment of wages to foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) raised by me on January 26 this year, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) given the Government's reply that "if the Labour Department (LD) detects any suspected wage offences under the Employment Ordinance committed by employers, LD will invite the concerned FDH to provide information and act as a prosecution witness (PW)", whether the Government will definitely invite the FDHs concerned to provide information and act as PWs in those cases; if it will, of the number of FDHs invited by LD to act as PWs in the past five years; if not, the reasons for that; of the total number of FDHs concerned not being invited by LD in the past five years to act as PWs;

(b) given the Government's reply that "during the same period, LD handled a total of 2 613 claims which involved FDHs lodging claims for arrears of wages against their employers", yet LD's Annual Reports show that on average thousands of claims were handled each year in relation to non-payment of wages/wage deduction, whether the aforesaid figure of 2 613 claims was the number of claims in the year of 2010 only or the total number of claims in the five years from 2006 to 2010; if it was the number of claims in 2010 only, of the total number of cases handled by LD in the five years from 2006 to 2010 relating to FDHs lodging claims for underpayment of wages against their employers; if it was the total number of claims in the five years from 2006 to 2010, of the reasons for such a marked difference between the figure and those indicated in LD's Annual Reports; and

(c) given the Government's reply that "if an FDH employer is convicted of contravening relevant labour legislation, the employer may be regarded as not meeting the criteria for employing FDHs for a period of time (in general, two years), and the relevant application will not be approved", yet according to the Immigration Department's Guidebook for the Employment of Domestic Helpers from Abroad, an employer will not be considered eligible to employ a helper for a period of time where he/she has been convicted of offences relating to a helper under labour laws, if the Government can clarify whether an FDH employer who is convicted of contravening the relevant labour laws will only "probably" be regarded as not meeting the criteria for employing an FDH for a period of time, or he/she will "definitely" be regarded so?

Reply:

President,

     My reply to the Hon Leung Yiu-chung's question is as below:

(a) If the Labour Department (LD) detects any suspected wage offences under the Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57) committed by employers of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs), LD will invite the FDH concerned to provide further information.  Once there is prima facie evidence that the employer might have breached the law, LD will invite the FDH to act as a prosecution witness (PW).  In the past five years from 2006 to 2010, a total of 197 FDHs agreed to act as PWs on wage offences upon LD's invitation.  For cases of suspected breach, the FDHs concerned will all be invited to act as PWs.

(b) The 2 613 claims mentioned in our previous written reply refer to the total number of FDHs' claims for arrears of wages against their employers which were handled by LD in the past five years from 2006 to 2010.  As for the number of claims involving non-payment or deduction of wages published in the LD Annual Report, the figure refers to such claims lodged by all types of employees which were handled by LD in that year.

(c) If an employer is convicted of contravening offences relating to a helper under labour laws, as a general rule, the employer will not be considered as meeting the criteria to employ an FDH for a period of time.

Ends/Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Issued at HKT 11:18

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