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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Chin-shek and a written reply by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Rafael Hui, in the Legislative Council today (February 22):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council of the following for the past three years:
(a) the total amount of claims involved in the cases received each year by the Labour Tribunal, with a breakdown by claim item;
(b) the total amount of claims awarded by the Labour Tribunal for the cases concluded each year and, in respect of these cases, the average time taken from the date of filing to conclusion, with a breakdown by the trade and occupation of the claimants; and
(c) the number of fieldwork investigations into claims conducted by the Tribunal Officers of the Labour Tribunal, broken down by the reasons thereof?
Reply:
Madam President,
The question raised by the Honourable Member relates to the statistics of the cases handled by the Labour Tribunal. Having consulted the Judiciary, we now provide the following response:
(a) The total amount of claims involved in cases filed to the Labour Tribunal in 2003, 2004 and 2005 are $1,212 million, $1,035 million and $979 million respectively. The above figures do not include claims for which the amount of claim is to be assessed. The Judiciary does not have a breakdown of cases by claim items.
(b) The total amount of claims awarded by the Labour Tribunal in 2003, 2004 and 2005 are $706 million, $488 million and $335 million respectively. The average time taken from the date of filing of the case to conclusion for all claims concluded in these three years (including claims which have been settled, withdrawn and transferred) are 49, 45 and 41 days respectively. The Judiciary does not have a breakdown of cases by claimants' trade or occupation.
(c) No claim-related on-site investigations were required to be carried out by Tribunal Officers in the past three years.
Ends/Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Issued at HKT 13:27
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