Speech by the Commissioner for Labour
in moving the Second Reading of
the Contracts for Overseas Employment (Amendment) Bill 1985
in the Legislative Council on 10 July 1985
Sir,
I move that the Contracts for Overseas Employment
(Amendment) Bill 1985 be read a second time.
In July 1984, following publicity about a dispute
affecting Hong Kong workers in Sri Lanka, Dr. HO Kam-fai asked
il
a question in this Council about the adequacy of the Contracts
for Overseas Employment Ordinance.
Subsequently, a review of this Ordinance was under-
taken. The present Bill is the result of this review and
provides for a number of amendments.
The main weakness of the present Ordinance is that
it does not provide for any penalties for non-compliance. The
Bill seeks to meet this point by providing for a maximum penalty
of a fine of $50,000 for an employer or his agent who either
fails to comply with the Ordinance himself or solicits or
induces a worker to leave Hong Kong to take up employment
without complying with the Ordinance.
Because of the difficulty of taking legal action
against employers who are not resident in Hong Kong, it is
proposed that the Ordinance shall also apply to employers'
agents in Hong Kong, and their liability to prosecution is made
clear in the Bill.
Persons migrating for employment are to
be excepted but in such cases the Commissioner for Labour must
certify that he is satisfied that the employee will be accepted
for permanent settlement in the country in which he will be
employed.
The Bill also provides for the amendment of a
number of expressions which are either out-of-date or misleading.
These provisions include :