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"The benefits provided by the Employment Ordinance include paid annual leave, statutory holidays, sickness allowance and end of year payment," he added.

Employers are required to give benefits and entitlements to their employees according to the Employment Ordinance or they may face prosecutions.

"Under the Ordinance, it is an offence for an employer not to grant his employees any holiday or not to give holiday pay or sickness allowance or other benefits," the spokesman said.

Officers of the Labour Department conduct inspections to employers' premises to ensure compliance with the provisions on annual leave, statutory holidays, etc.

"If there is sufficient evidence, the Department will take out prosecutions against employers who breach the law. They may be liable, upon conviction, to a fine of $10,000 to $200,000," the spokesman added.

In 1996, the Labour Department secured 1,361 convictions for failing to grant statutory holidays to employees under the Employment Ordinance.

End

Latest review of tar and nicotine yields announced

The Government's latest Review of Tar and Nicotine Yields of Cigarettes has shown that the average tar and nicotine yields of the 106 best-selling cigarettes in Hong Kong in 1996 were 12.9 milligrams (mg) and 0.95 mg per cigarette respectively.

This represents a decrease of 0.2 mg in tar yield, but a 0.03 mg increase in nicotine yield as compared with last year's review, a spokesman for the Health and Welfare Branch said today (Monday).

According to the review, 21 brands of cigarettes were in the LOW TAR group (0 to 9 mg/cigarette), 35 brands in the LOW TO MIDDLE TAR group (10 to 14 mg/cigarette), 42 brands in the MIDDLE TAR (15 to 17 mg/cigarette) group and 8 brands in the HIGH TAR group (18 to 20 mg/cigarette).

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