EMPLOYMENT
(b) Employers who are genuinely unable to recruit local workers to fill their job
vacancies should be allowed to bring in imported workers.
Hong Kong has three labour importation schemes the Supplementary Labour Scheme, the Special Labour Importation Scheme for the New Airport and Related Projects and the Pilot Scheme for the entry of professionals from the People's Republic of China (PRC).
The Supplementary Labour Scheme commenced on February 1, 1996. All applications are considered on a case-by-case basis. To ensure priority of employment for local workers, each application for imported workers has to pass three tests before it is submitted to the Secretary for Education and Manpower for a decision newspaper advertisements, job-matching by the Labour Department for two months (plus tailor-made retraining course for workers if possible) and consideration by the Labour Advisory Board. In 1996, a total of 281 visas were approved. The government will review the scheme when that figure reaches 2 000.
The Special Importation of Labour Scheme for the New Airport and Related Projects was introduced in May 1990 to facilitate the timely completion of the new airport and related projects. It operates under a quota ceiling of 17 000. All contractors who have been awarded contracts for the new airport and related projects are eligible to apply for imported workers under the scheme. To safeguard the interests of local workers, each application has to comply with several basic requirements. These include: the number, type and duration of employment of imported workers must be compatible with the manpower requirements of the works contract in question; the wage offered to the imported worker must be no less than that offered to a local worker in a comparable position; the employer must go through a four-week local recruitment test for the job vacancy at both the Labour Department and the Airport Core Projects Job Centre to give priority of employment to local workers; and the imported worker is to remain only under the direct employment of the same employer under the specific works contract(s) up to the duration of the employment contract and to engage only in work stipulated in such a contract. By December 1996, 5 288 imported workers made up about 16 per cent of the total workforce for the projects.
The Pilot Scheme for the entry of PRC professionals was introduced in March 1994 with a quota ceiling of 1 000 for the entry of graduate professionals from any of the 36 key PRC tertiary institutions, who possess PRC-related knowledge, expertise and experience which are in demand but not readily available in Hong Kong. All Hong Kong companies can apply under the scheme. At the end of the year, 705 out of the total of 2 216 applications had been approved and 515 employment visas issued. The government is conducting a comprehensive review of the scheme.
Foreign Domestic Helpers
The entry of foreign domestic helpers is subject to the conditions that they have experience in that field of work, that their employers are bona fide Hong Kong residents prepared to offer reasonable terms of employment including wages and accommodation, and that the employers are willing to provide for the helpers' maintenance in the territory as well as the costs of repatriation to their country of origin.
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