Although the labor market has stabilized this year and the unemployment rate has fallen from a high level, for those who are unfortunately unemployed, protection is still lacking. One of them is that the maximum amount of various items of the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund lags behind the current situation, and many employees It takes a long time to get back the back wages.
The Commissioner for Labour, Sun Yukhan, received an exclusive interview with the TV station earlier and said that he would increase the sub-limits, but he did not intend to review the application procedures, nor did he mention whether he had used his discretionary power to issue funds early.
The prescription has been negligent in many employment and unemployment support measures, and the labor situation will continue to be difficult in the coming year.
If the employer defaults on wages, wages in lieu of notice, severance pay, unpaid annual leave or unpaid statutory holiday pay and is unable to repay the employee, the employee can apply for ex-gratia payment from the owed fund.
The fund's funding mainly comes from the levy on the business registration certificate.
When the epidemic hit last year, the fund received 3,020 employee applications, of which about 80% were approved. The two figures are similar to 2019 but higher than 2018.
In the first nine months of this year, 2,461 applications were received.
The ex-gratia payment has not been changed for 25 years
For many years, the upper limit of the application amount has been criticized, especially the ex-gratia payment for arrears.
Since 1996, this ceiling has been maintained at 36,000 yuan. The criterion is that the median monthly salary of the year is multiplied by four months.
The current median monthly salary has reached 20,000 yuan, and this amount has long been out of line.
The consequence of a too low ceiling is that part of the employee’s due remuneration is destined to fail. Among the applications this year, 677 wage claims exceeded the limit, a quarter of the rate.
For a long time, the two major trade unions, the Federation of Trade Unions and the AFL, have asked the government to raise the upper limit of the amount. The recent proposal is at least 76,000 to 80,000 yuan.
During the interview, Sun Yuhan revealed that the owed fund committee is reviewing the maximum amount of sub-items, and he expects that the level will increase significantly, and it will spread across all sub-items, which is belated good news for the migrant workers.
Sun Yuhan, Commissioner of Labour Department (middle).
(Information Picture/Information Services Department)
Timely aid is exaggerated
There is a good chance that the amount of compensation will increase, but if the unemployed cannot get the money at the beginning of their unemployment, it would be contrary to the purpose of the fund proposed by the government, which is to provide employees with "timely financial assistance."
Sun Yuhan said that the fund is approved quickly, and it only takes about two weeks from the receipt of the documents to the approval of the funds.
The prescription has repeatedly expressed concern that simplified procedures and early appropriation of funds will encourage employers to "do the numbers" and abuse the fund.
The problem is that this is just a procedure from the perspective of the Labour Department. For employees, the procedure starts when the employer fails to pay on time.
At present, employees have to go through multiple departments to receive payment, including applying to the Labour Department, legal aid from the Legal Aid Department to seek bankruptcy or winding-up orders from the court, or the Labour Tribunal to establish an employment relationship and clarify arrears of wages The amount of the project, and the employer’s inability to pay the arrears, etc.
The union has handled some cases, and employees have to wait for one and a half years or even two years to receive the payment, which greatly affects personal and family finances.
Lin Zhensheng, chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Federation of Labor Associations (first from right), criticized that the current protection of wages on insolvency fund failed to provide effective protection to employees who were owed wages in a timely manner.
(Photo by Hou Cailin)
Various departments must cooperate to compress the claims process
In fact, Section 18(1) of the "Protection of Wages on Insolvency Ordinance" has given the Commissioner of Labor the discretion to approve payments under the condition that there are three non-petitions, including the number of employees less than 20, and there is sufficient evidence to support the company's failure to repay the debts Ability, and whether it is unreasonable or uneconomical to file a petition.
The government has announced the cases where discretionary ex-gratia compensation was paid in the 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 financial years, accounting for about one-third of the approved cases in that year.
However, when the union continues to collect and report cases that have not been approved for a long time, the prescription must also be considered from the employee's point of view and proactively contact the Legal Aid Department, the Labour Tribunal and the judiciary to review the procedures to shorten the processing time as much as possible.
More fundamentally, if employers are aggrieved by unpaid workers, the Labour Department should try to make it easier for employees to defend their rights.
Not only is the protection of debts broken, the government is committed to deficiencies in many labor areas, a series of industrial accidents have exposed the lack of supervision and inspections by the Labor Department, and the penalties imposed on employers are too light. For self-employed people, the epidemic has not yet calculated the lack of unemployment benefits and unemployment insurance support for employees, and the cancellation of MPF hedging will not be cancelled until 2025, and so on.
This year’s migrant workers may not be doing well. It is expected that the Labour Department, or its superior Labour and Welfare Bureau, will earnestly reform the labour policy in the upcoming 2022, so that the majority of workers can work hard for Hong Kong with peace of mind.
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