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Governor announces measures to tackle unemployment
The Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, today (Tuesday) announced a 13-point package of measures to tackle unemployment.
The package included short, medium and long term measures to crack down on illegal employment; step up job placement and retraining; review of the General Labour Importation Scheme; and obtain more detailed information in respect of the profile of the unemployed and the vacancies so as to improve future manpower planning.
Speaking after the summit meeting called to discuss employment issues, Mr Patten said the meeting had been extremely useful in that despite differences in opinions, there were common grounds that should be pursued.
He called on employers and employees to focus on these common grounds and not allow the issue to polarise the community and sour Hong Kong's very good labour relations record.
The summit was attended by more than 80 representatives of employees, employers and Legislative Council Members.
The measures announced by the Governor after the summit are:
Short term:
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Clamp down on the illegal employment of illegal immigrants, foreign domestic This will involve doubling the size of helpers, two-way permit holders, etc. the Task Force of the Immigration Department from the existing 46 to 92 by the end of this year, so that more frequent operations can be conducted; and adding a fax line on top of the existing 24-hour hotline provided by the Immigration Department to make it earlier for the public to report complaints on illegal
workers.
Step up enforcement actions against abuses of the labour importation schemes. To achieve this, the Labour Inspectorate of the Labour Department will conduct more vigorous inspections at both the places of employment and the accommodation of imported workers to guard against abuses.