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31
Importation of labour scheme
Following is a question by the Hon Lee Cheuk-yan and a reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Michael Leung, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
With regard to the importation of labour scheme, will the Government inform this Council:
Reply:
(a)
(b)
(c)
Mr President.
of the current distribution of imported workers by job titles in each of the industrial and service sectors;
whether the list of employers of imported workers will be disclosed; if not, why not; and
whether the 500 health-care workers, which the Social Welfare Department has indicated that it plans to import for privately-operated homes for the aged, will come under the quota of the 25,000 workers to be imported?
(a) The latest statistical breakdown of imported workers by sectors and by job titles are in the Annex tabled with this reply. Because this annex runs to 104 pages, members will appreciate that we can't translate this in time. I hope to have it ready as soon as possible.
(b)
The General Scheme has been operating smoothly over the years and with a high degree of transparency. The classification of industry groups, the quota allocation criteria and the allocation results by industry groups are already made public including of course to this Council. However, disclosure of information about individual employers of imported workers would involve disclosure of their own manpower planning policies and practices within the companies concerned which some companies may not wish to make public. Members will appreciate as the employers had not been notified of such an arrangement before they applied for the quota allocation, we cannot do this without their consent.