TNAG-1609-FCO40-22131-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 21

MRS. TAM : Sir, in the

answer the Secretary said that the

employment of young people who had not yet completed Form III

was subject to further safeguards

to ensure that their

schooling was not disrupted. Could the Secretary inform this

Council what these further safeguards are?

SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER: If a child of school age

is employed, then the parents of the child must give

give their

permission and also a certificate must be produced to show that

the child is in fact in school. And the hours that the child

may work are limited per day and they are limited to working at

times which will not interfere with their school work.

MR. DESMOND LEE : Sir, may I refer to the 15 cases of

prosecution against illegal employment of children mentioned in

the answer and ask what sort of sentences have been given?

SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER : Sir, I donot have

specific information on these particular cases but the normal

penalties are fines of between $500 and $2,000.

MR. PETER C. WONG : Sir, in the first 10 months of this year,

of the 23,000 visits made by the Labour Inspectorate, 24 cases

of illegal employment of children were discovered. And of

these, 15 are being prosecuted and the remaining nine are still

under investigation. Does that imply, Sir,

Sir, that these cases

discovered only very recently? And could the Secretary

inform this Council how recent were these cases discovered?

were