XN000022-1995-12-05 — Page 3

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ACP contractors may be sued for breaching labour law

Subject to the advice of the Attorney General's Chambers, the Government intends to prosecute a number of employers who bought in workers under the labour importation scheme for new airport related projects, for breaching the legislation, the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph WP Wong said today (Tuesday).

Speaking at a special meeting of the Legislative Council's Panel on Manpower, Mr Wong said two of the cases involved Thai workers and three involved imported workers from China.

said.

"A decision on whether or not to prosecute will be taken shortly," Mr Wong

The Panel was informed of the Government's plan to introduce further measures as soon as practicable to strengthen the monitory system which aims at preventing abuses of the Scheme and providing protection for imported workers. They include:

Verification of Employment Contract

To enable the imported workers to understanding fully their terms of employment, the Government will ask employers to give an undertaking to the Labour Department that the imported workers, before their arrival in Hong Kong, have already received a copy of the employment contract specifying the post and amount of wages.

The workers will be asked to present the contract to Immigration Department officers for inspection.

This arrangement is to ascertain that workers are fully aware of their job nature, salary and entitlements before they arrive in Hong Kong.

Provision of Meals

To stem out possible malpractice involving excessive deduction of wages for meals, the Government will revise the standard employment contract to the effect that employees should be responsible for their own meals; however, if meals are provided by the employer, they shall be provided free of charge.