ENG-1992 — Page 127

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EMPLOYMENT

In September, 75 per cent of manual workers in the manufacturing sector received a daily wage, including fringe benefits, of $174 or more, and 25 per cent received $261 or more. The overall average daily wage was $224.

Employee Benefits

The Employment Ordinance provides for benefits including statutory holidays, annual leave, rest days, maternity leave, sickness allowance, severance payment, long service payment and other entitlements for employees. In addition, some employers provide employees with various types of fringe benefits such as subsidised meals or food allowances, good attendance bonuses, free medical or subsidised treatment and free or subsidised transport. Many employees also enjoy a year-end bonus of one month's pay or more under their employment contracts, usually paid just before the lunar new year.

While there is no central provident fund in Hong Kong, the government has encouraged employers to establish their own provident fund schemes and in recent years, an increasing number of employers have done so to provide improved long-term security for their employees. Up to the end of 1992, a total of 13 008 private retirement schemes had been approved by the Inland Revenue Department.

In November 1991, an inter-departmental working group on retirement protection was set up under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Education and Manpower to review the options, other than a central provident fund, which would enable workers to secure better - retirement protection. In October 23, 1992, a consultation paper on A Community-Wide Retirement Protection System was issued to the general public and their views on it were invited.

Under the long service payment scheme, employees who have completed five years' service or more are entitled to long service payment upon dismissal other than by way of summary dismissal or redundancy, or upon retirement on grounds of ill-health. The payment is payable also to the families of eligible employees who die in service. Retirement at the age of 65 or above with at least 10 years' service will also attract long service payment. The amount of long service payment is calculated at the rate of two-thirds of a month's wages for each year of service. The amount receivable is reduced at a rate which takes into account the factors of age and years of service.

The Employment Ordinance was amended in July 1992 to better protect an employee who is dismissed due to removal of the workplace. Before the amendment, an employee who was dismissed in such circumstances was entitled to severance payment if the workplace were moved across Victoria Harbour. The ordinance amendment enables a dismissed employee to claim severance payment if the removal causes him undue hardship, even though the removal is not across the harbour.

To discourage exploitation of workers, the maximum penalty for late or non-payment of wages by unscrupulous employers was increased tenfold in May 1992. An imprisonment term of one year for the offence was also introduced.

Labour Conditions

Children below the age of 15 are prohibited from working in any industrial undertaking. Children aged 13 and 14 may be employed in non-industrial establishments subject to their having completed nine years' education and other conditions which aim to protect their safety, health and welfare. However the vast majority of children in this age group are still in the formal education sector.