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A total of 30 illegal workers and 12 employers or persons-in-charge of workplaces were arrested in anti-illegal employment operations conducted jointly by the Labour Department and the Police in the past few days.
Labour inspectors and police officers raided 54 suspected spots, including interior decoration sites, retail shops, eating places, hair salons and tyre repairing workshops over the territory in the joint operations.
Eleven illegal workers were found working in three interior decoration sites and three contractors were suspected to have employed them.
For the remaining 19 illegal workers, nine worked as waiters, cashiers, dish cleaners or general workers in eating places, another nine worked as sales assistants in retail shops, and the remaining one worked as tyre repairing worker in a tyre repairing workshop.
Among the 30 arrested illegal workers, one was a foreign domestic helper and the rest were Mainlanders mainly coming from Guangdong and Fujian.
Senior Labour Officer of the Labour Department Mr Ip Yee-cheung said: "The Government will not tolerate illegal employment. The Labour Department will continue to take out vigorous enforcement to stamp out the illicit activities with a view to bringing offending employers and illegal workers to justice."
Mr Ip urged the public to report illegal employment to the Labour Department's hotline 2815 2200. All information provided will be handled in strict confidence.
Ends/Thursday, January 19, 2006
Issued at HKT 19:55
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