Tuesday, February 26, 1974
During the first eleven months of its operation ending in January,
a total of 1,011 claims, involving about $2.4 million, has been filed at
the tribunal.
The number of claimants totalled 2,183 while there were 1,070
dofondants.
Of all the claims, 842 had been heard and a total of about $850,000
had been awarded to the claimants.
Mr. Michael Wong said the main claims were for wages in lieu of
notices and arrears.
"There were also claims for statutory holiday pay, double pay, bonus,
sickness allowance, overtime allowance, commission, rebates and recovery of
deponit paid under contracts of employment," he added.
Mr. Wong also pointed out that over 90 per cent of the claims filed
were referred to the Tribunal by the Labour Department where attempts at
reconciliation had been unsuccessful.
"The tribunal in no way supersedes the Labour Relations Service of
the Labour Department and it only strengthens the hands of the department's
conciliation officers," he stressed.
"Its main function is to deal mostly with claims by individual
workers against employers for money due either under a contract of employment
or under the provisions of the Employment Ordinance," Mr. Wong said.
"The Labour Tribunal is the first tribunal in the Judiciary to
conduct proceedings in the Chinese language," Mr. Wong added.
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