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Members have also raised a few points during their speeches on the Regulations. The Hon Ronald Arculli mentioned the construction industry's concern about the provision of public dumps and sorting facilities for construction waste. I would like to assure Members that sufficient public dumps will be made available in the near future. In addition to the existing public dump at Tseung Kwan O, two more will operate in the next few months - the Aldrich Bay barging point in August and the Tuen Mun Area 38 public dump in November. Two further public dumps will come on stream in the next two years.

I believe the construction industry is well aware of the need to practise better segregation of waste on site in order to increase the proportion of waste that can be diverted away from landfills. For those who cannot do so, we have set up a sorting plant for construction waste at the Southeast NT landfill. It has been commissioned in stages since March 1995 and will be in full operation by July this year. Depending on the demand for its services, we shall review the need for setting up similar facilities at other landfill sites.

End/Wednesday, June 21, 1995

Employment Ordinance

Following is the speech by the acting Secretary for Education and Manpower, Miss Jacqueline Willis, in moving a resolution under Section 67A of the Employment Ordinance in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Mr President,

I move the motion standing in my name.

The purpose of this resolution is to revise the existing wage limit for the purpose of calculating severance payment and long service payment under the Employment Ordinance.

When the Employment Ordinance was first enacted in 1968, it applied to all manual employees regardless of wage levels, and to those non-manual employees who earned not more than $1,500 a month. The wage ceiling for non-manual employees was then reviewed and revised regularly to take account of wage movements. It was raised to $11,500 in 1987.

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