TNAG-1731-FCO40-2444-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 197

Supplementaries to Question No 5 in Legea Chamber's

On Wednesday 18th May 1988

Légca

MR. TAM (in Cantonese): Sir, we have 1000 odd cases in which

payment could not be made. This is not a small number. On top of that, because of the very complicated procedure, sometimes the enforcement certificates have

not been applied for. I

cannot

see

from

the reply what sort of measures have been taken to improve the situation. The Secretary for Education and

Manpower has just told us that there is no need to amend section 38 of the Ordinance. Could we be informed what

measures could be taken to improve the situation for the

1000 odd remaining cases?

SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER: Sir, the Labour

Department has been in frequent touch and had a number of meetings with the Registrar of the Supreme Court,

the

Director of Legal Aid and my branch to discuss improvements

to the procedure. A number have been made, mostly in

points of details. Some of the more substantial ones I have already mentioned. The Labour Department, for example, now advises all plaintiffs to apply to the insolvency fund as soon as they apply to the Labour Tribunal. When they receive an enforcement order, that is accompanied

by a note to the plaintiff advising them to go to the

Labour Department for help. The insolvency fund itself, of course, has only been operational since 1985 so that is an enormous improvement in the position of plaintiffs. One of the main drawbacks at present is the $5000 limit

which we will be putting right, we hope, within the next

few weeks by an amendment to the Ordinance which I have

already mentioned. Other problems are being looked at

from time to time. Another one is the enforcement

orders with the district court. At present the plaintiff

has to go to another building to register his enforcement

order. We have asked the Registrar whether he can improve that situation by providing for registration in the Labour Tribunal itself. But turning back to Mr. TAM's

comment on the large number of cases, I did make the point that this is the number of cases over a five-year