ENG-2010 — Page 179

Employment | 133

Supplementary Labour Scheme

Under the Supplementary Labour Scheme, employers may apply to import workers to fill vacancies at technician level or below. The Government's policy on importation of labour is based on two cardinal principles:

⚫ local workers must be given priority in filling job vacancies available in the

market; and

• employers who are genuinely unable to recruit local workers to fill their vacancies should be allowed to import workers.

All applications made under the scheme are considered on a case-by-case basis. To ensure priority of employment for local workers, each application to import workers has to comply with three procedural requirements before it is submitted to the Labour Advisory Board for consideration and to the Government for a decision.

The requirements are: advertising in newspapers, job-matching by the Labour Department for four weeks, and organising retraining courses with the assistance of the Employees Retraining Board for local workers, if appropriate.

At the end of 2010, there were 1837 imported workers working in Hong Kong.

Foreign Domestic Helpers

Foreign domestic helpers may be admitted if, subject to immigration control, they have relevant working experience and if their employers are Hong Kong residents who are prepared to offer terms of employment as stipulated in the standard employment contract prescribed by the Government, including free and suitable accommodation, free food or food allowance in lieu, wages not lower than the minimum allowable wage set by the Government, free passage from and to the helper's place of origin and free medical care. Employers must also meet the requirements on income or assets.

The demand for foreign domestic helpers has increased steadily over the past three decades. At the end of 2010, there were 285 681 such helpers in Hong Kong, an increase of 6.7 per cent over the 267 778 in 2009. About 49.3 per cent were from Indonesia and 48.1 per cent from the Philippines.

Occupational Safety and Health

The Labour Department improves continually safety and health in the workplace through a three-pronged strategy of legislation and enforcement, publicity and promotion, as well as education and training. Safety and health at work in Hong Kong has improved significantly in the past decade as a result of the concerted effort of all parties concerned, including employers, employees, contractors, safety practitioners and the Government.

In 2010, the number of occupational injuries was 41 907, a drop of 22 per cent from the 53 719 cases in 2001. Over the same period, the number of industrial accidents also fell from 28 518 to 14 015, down by 50.9 per cent. In the