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The director of FLK Limited, Mr Tong Siu-fai, was fined $12,000 at the Tsuen Wan Magistrates' Courts today (March 8) for wage offences under the Employment Ordinance. The prosecution was launched by the Labour Department.
The director failed to pay wages to three employees within seven days of the expiry of the wage period and the termination of employment as required by the ordinance. The amount of wages involved was about $17,000. The director was also ordered to clear the outstanding wages via the court.
A spokesman for the Labour Department said that company directors have a personal responsibility to ensure that wages are paid to employees in accordance with the Employment Ordinance.
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.
The Labour Department will not tolerate wage offences and will spare no effort in prosecuting directors and employers who defy the law, the spokesman said.
Ends/Thursday, March 8, 2007
Issued at HKT 18:45
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