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The director of 1698 Limited, trading as Happy Restaurant, Mr Chan Yuk-ho, was fined $30,000 at the Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts today (January 8) for wage offences under the Employment Ordinance. The prosecution was launched by the Labour Department.
The director failed to pay wages to five employees within seven days of the expiry of the wage period and the termination of employment as required by the ordinance, a spokesman for the Labour Department said. The amount of wages involved was about $58,000. The director was also ordered to clear the outstanding wages via the court.
Section 64B of the Employment Ordinance stipulates that where any wage payment offence committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, the director, manager, secretary or other similar officer shall be guilty of a like offence. Offenders are liable to prosecution and, upon conviction, to a maximum penalty of a fine of $350,000 and imprisonment for three years.
Company directors had a personal responsibility to ensure that wages are paid to employees in accordance with the Employment Ordinance, the spokesman said.
The Labour Department will not tolerate wage offences and will spare no effort in bringing to justice directors and employers who defy the law.
Ends/Monday, January 8, 2007
Issued at HKT 19:12
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