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Employment

holidaying, short-term employment to support their travel expenses and, except for Ireland, short-term courses.

As at end-2018, the scheme had recorded about 90,000 Hong Kong youth participants and welcomed about 11,000 youths from the partner economies to Hong Kong.

Employees Retraining Board

The Employees Retraining Board is a statutory body set up under the Employees Retraining Ordinance. The board provides, under its Manpower Development Scheme, market-driven training and support through over 80 appointed training bodies that operate a total of around 400 training centres. People aged 15 or above with up to sub-degree education may enrol on its full-time placement-tied courses, half-day or evening generic skills training courses, and courses under the Skills Upgrading Scheme Plus. There are about 700 courses straddling 28 industries. The board offers around 130,000 training places annually to upgrade the skills of in- service workers, and to help the unemployed and those seeking job changes re-enter the labour market.

The board provides dedicated training and employment support to young people, new immigrants, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, people recovered from work injuries, rehabilitated former drug abusers and former offenders.

The board operates Smart Living, Smart Baby Care and Smart Starter platforms to provide trainees with referral and follow-up services for relevant job vacancies. It runs service centres and service spots in various districts to provide local residents with training support.

Labour Relations

The Labour Department provides a voluntary conciliation service to help employers and employees outside the government resolve disputes and claims. It also publicises the Employment Ordinance and promotes good human resource management practices.

The department runs nine industry-based tripartite committees to foster industry-level dialogue and cooperation among employers, employees and the government. These committees, covering catering, cement and concrete, construction, hotel and tourism, logistics, printing, property management, retail, and theatre, provide effective forums for members to discuss. issues of common concern to their industries.

The department also works with 18 human resources managers' clubs to encourage members to maintain effective employer-employee communication and adopt good human resource management practices in their organisations and sectors.

During the year, the department handled 90 trade disputes and 13,691 employment claims. In cases where the department provided a conciliation service, more than 70 per cent were settled. It also handled five strikes which resulted in a loss of 211 working days in the year, or an average loss of 0.06 working days per 1,000 salaried employees and wage earners, one of the lowest in the world.

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