Sir,
(Revised)
Speech by the Commissioner for Labour
in moving the Second Reading of
the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Bill 1985
in the Legislative Council on 13 March 1985
I move that the Protection of Wages on Insolvency
Bill, 1985 be read the second time.
2.
The purpose of the Bill is to give effect to the
recommendations of the Working Group on the Problems experienced
by Workers of Companies in Receivership. The group's report was
accepted in principle by the Executive Council and that acceptance
was announced by you, Sir, in your address to this Council on
5th October 1983. The main recommendation of the Working Group
was that a Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund should be
established and that it should be financed by a levy of $100
on business registration certificates. At present many workers
in this situation have to wait several months before receiving wages owed to them because of the complicated and time consuming nature of insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings, and may never receive the full wages owed to them if their employer's assets are insufficient to cover them.
3.
The $100 levy became payable on 1st October 1984 as a result of the enactment of the Business Registration (Amendment) Ordinance 1984. That Ordinance also established the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund as a holding fund managed temporarily by the Secretary for Education and Manpower. To accumulate funds in this way before enactment of the main legislation establishing the Fund Board was a somewhat unorthodox procedure, but as the Secretary for Education and Manpower explained at the time, unless the fund was able to start operation with a substantial working capital in hand,
/there would