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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, on the wage claims by employees of DSC Holdings Limited, after attending the "Keep Clean 2015@Hong Kong: Our Home" - Eastern District Clean Hong Kong Campaign cum Bus Parade today (August 9):
Reporter: Mr Cheung, what is the latest situation with DSC? What is the Government doing to help them?
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: The Government attaches great importance to this particular case. In fact, various departments have been involved: the Police, Customs, and also Labour Department. As far as the employees are concerned, we will do all we can, in fact, on two fronts. On the employment front, we are providing special service for them. At the moment, there are around 17 000 private sector vacancies in the retail sector available in Labour Department's database. So, if the employees are looking for alternative employment, opportunities are there. And in fact, we will also be holding a major job fair on the 19th of this month in Sha Tin Town Hall, providing 5 800 vacancies in the private sector, and some of these, in fact, are also related to retails work. So, in terms of opportunities, I don't think they should be unduly worried. If they are interested to resume work, I think chances are, they can get a job rather quickly.
And also, on the question of wage arrears, in fact the Labour Department will hold a meeting tomorrow. We have actually asked the proprietor to attend, the senior management to attend, along with the representatives of the employees to settle the whole problem, and also to establish the reason for the closure. We have to establish responsibility there. And if the employers turn up, then it would be a lot better, because that would enable us to verify the wage records, and also make sure that they can't pay wages, they are unable to pay. But if they don't turn up, then we have to refer the whole case to the Labour Tribunal. But we will certainly do what we can to compress the timeframe, to ensure that the employees get ex-gratia payments from the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund as quickly as possible. We will do the best we can to protect them.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Sunday, August 9, 2015
Issued at HKT 13:00
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