Employer fined for underpaying domestic worker

An employer was fined HK$13,000 (US$1,667) for paying her domestic worker just HK$2,000 monthly; the minimum wage for a domestic worker in Hong Kong is HK$3,670 before she pays the extortionate tax of HK$400 that the government imposed in 2003.

The domestic worker in this case would only have been receiving HK$1,600 after paying the tax.

South China Morning Post, 23 February 2004

70 staff sacked during ‘restructuring’ talks

The government’s Sports Development Board (Sports Commission since April) employed 311 staff and workers until it announced it was to sack 70 of them on 19 February. Although working for the government, these 70 are contracted by the Civil Service, making it much easier for the government to dismiss them.

Just as the union was negotiating ‘restructuring’ with the Home Affairs Bureau and Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the sackings were posted, enraging the staff, 170 of who protested for more than one hour at the head office in Sha Tin on 23 February.

In the dismissal notices, the Board offered the sacked workers one month’s salary for every two years worked, about half the normal compensation rate.

South China Morning Post, 24 February 2004 and local sources