Employment | 131
enforcement of the rights and obligations of employers and employees, and in so doing, also enables Hong Kong to meet internationally-accepted labour standards.
A statutory minimum wage of $28 per hour was introduced for the first time in Hong Kong on May 1, 2011 to forestall excessively low wages of the grassroots workforce.
There were
were 4 965 prosecutions for breaches of various ordinances and regulations administered by the Labour Department in 2011. These resulted in fines totalling more than $17 million.
International Labour Affairs
Hong Kong applies 41 international labour conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). These conventions set standards that have a significant influence on the formulation of Hong Kong's labour laws.
Hong Kong continued to participate keenly in ILO activities during the year, keeping itself abreast of international labour issues. In June, a team of HKSAR government, employer and employee representatives attended the 100th Session of the International Labour Conference as part of the China delegation.
In December, a tripartite team attended the 15th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting of the ILO under the name 'Hong Kong, China'.
Labour Advisory Board
The Labour Advisory Board is a high-level and representative tripartite consultative body. It advises the Commissioner for Labour on labour matters and ILO conventions and recommendations. The board comprises 12 members, six representing employers and six representing employees. The Commissioner for Labour is the ex officio chairman.
The board has five standing committees to deal with employees' compensation, employment services, occupational safety and health, labour relations and implementation of international labour standards respectively. There is, in addition, a working group under the board to deal with applications for labour importation under the Supplementary Labour Scheme.
Employment Services
The Labour Department provides a wide range of free employment and recruitment services to job seekers and employers through a network of 11 job centres, a one-stop employment and training centre, called 'Employment in One- stop', two recruitment centres for the catering and retail industries, a Telephone Employment Service Centre, a Central Recruitment Unit and a Job Vacancy Processing Centre. Round-the-clock employment services are provided through the Interactive Employment Services website (www.jobs.gov.hk), which recorded over 0.35 billion page views in 2011, or an average page view of 0.97 million per day.
The department also organises large-scale and district-based job fairs to help. job seekers find jobs, and employers to recruit workers. For major closure or
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