MRS. TAM : Sir, in the
answer the Secretary said that the
employment of young people who had not yet completed Form III
was subject to further safeguards
to ensure that their
schooling was not disrupted. Could the Secretary inform this
Council what these further safeguards are?
SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER: If a child of school age
is employed, then the parents of the child must give
give their
permission and also a certificate must be produced to show that
the child is in fact in school. And the hours that the child
may work are limited per day and they are limited to working at
times which will not interfere with their school work.
MR. DESMOND LEE : Sir, may I refer to the 15 cases of
prosecution against illegal employment of children mentioned in
the answer and ask what sort of sentences have been given?
SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER : Sir, I donot have
specific information on these particular cases but the normal
penalties are fines of between $500 and $2,000.
MR. PETER C. WONG : Sir, in the first 10 months of this year,
of the 23,000 visits made by the Labour Inspectorate, 24 cases
of illegal employment of children were discovered. And of
these, 15 are being prosecuted and the remaining nine are still
under investigation. Does that imply, Sir,
Sir, that these cases
discovered only very recently? And could the Secretary
inform this Council how recent were these cases discovered?
were