Chapter 1 Highlights of Year 2022
1.1 The labour market was under notable pressure in the early months of 2022 amid the fifth wave of the local epidemic, but improved subsequently in the rest of the year as domestic economic activities gradually revived alongside the generally stable local epidemic situation. After rising to a high of 5.4% in February – April 2022, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell successively to 3.5% in the fourth quarter of 2022. Over the same period, the underemployment rate also fell from 3.8% to 1.5%. For 2022 as a whole, the unemployment rate averaged 4.3%, 0.9 percentage point lower than that in 2021, and the underemployment rate also fell by 0.3 percentage point to 2.3%. We will continue to closely monitor the labour market situation and enhance our employment services on all fronts, especially in canvassing job vacancies and rendering assistance to job seekers.
Employment Services
Employment and Recruitment Services
1.2 To help job seekers enter the labour market and respond speedily to the recruitment needs of employers, the Labour Department (LD) organises employment promotion activities at various locations across the territory. A total of ten large-scale job fairs, three online job fairs and 614 district-based job fairs were organised in the year.
Large-scale job fairs of the Labour Department well received by job seekers
1.3 The LD adopts a proactive approach in providing employment assistance. For example, in major business closure or redundancy cases, we set up enquiry hotlines and special counters at our job centres to provide special employment services to affected employees. In the year, the free recruitment service provided for employers by the LD recorded 1 089 199 job vacancies from the private and public sectors; and 164 713 placements were secured.
Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme
1.4 The LD launched the pilot Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme (GBA YES) in January 2021 and encouraged enterprises to employ university graduates from Hong Kong and station them to work in the Mainland cities of GBA, so as to support university graduates from Hong Kong to grasp the career development opportunities in the area. The pilot scheme received favourable feedback from the participating enterprises and young people. The LD will launch the regularised GBA YES in the first half of 2023.
Labour Relations
Promoting Harmonious Labour Relations
1.5 To foster harmonious labour relations, the LD adopts a proactive and pragmatic approach in helping employers and employees resolve their disagreements through communication and mutual understanding. In 2022, we handled a total of 70 labour disputes and 10 615 claims. Over 70% of cases with conciliation service rendered were resolved. The average waiting time for conciliation meetings was 2.5 weeks in the year.
Enhancing Good Human Resource Management Practices and Harmonious Labour Relations
1.6 The LD organised a wide range of promotional activities including exhibitions, seminars and talks to promote public understanding of labour laws and publicise employee-oriented and good human resource management measures. In 2022, we continued the promotion of labour-management collaboration to encourage both sides to exchange views and enhance mutual understanding on labour issues of common concern.
The Labour Department organised a wide range of promotional activities including exhibitions to promote public understanding of labour laws and publicise “employee-oriented” good human resource management measures
Abolition of the Offsetting Arrangement
1.7 In June 2022, the Employment and Retirement Schemes Legislation (Offsetting Arrangement) (Amendment) Bill 2022 was passed by the Legislative Council to abolish the arrangement of employers using the accrued benefits of their mandatory contributions under the Mandatory Provident Fund System to offset their employees’ severance payment (SP) and long service payment (LSP). The abolition of the offsetting arrangement will be implemented no later than 2025. The LD took forward extensive publicity work, including distributing flyers and conducting briefings to trade associations, labour unions and human resources practitioners, publishing posts on social media, placing feature articles and advertorials in major newspapers and launching a thematic website to help employers and employees understand the abolition arrangements and to calculate employees’ SP/LSP expenses.
Employees’ Rights and Benefits
Statutory Minimum Wage (SMW)
1.8 The Minimum Wage Commission (MWC), established under the Minimum Wage Ordinance (MWO), is tasked with the main function of reporting to the Chief Executive (CE) in Council its recommendation about the SMW rate at least once in every two years. The MWC comprises a chairperson and 12 members drawn from the labour sector, business community, academia and the Government. In October 2022, the MWC completed a new round of review of the SMW rate and submitted a report recommending raising the current SMW rate from $37.5 per hour to $40 per hour.
1.9 The CE announced in his 2022 Policy Address that the MWC would be invited to study how to enhance the review mechanism of the SMW, including the review cycle, how to improve efficiency, and balancing a host of factors such as the minimum wage level and sustained economic development, and make proposals to the Government.
Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund (PWIF)
1.10The Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund provides assistance in the form of ex gratia payment to eligible employees affected by insolvency of their employers. The maximum amounts of ex gratia payment items under the PWIF were substantially increased in June 2022 to offer better protection to affected employees. The LD continued its efforts in clamping down at source on employers evading their wage liabilities, thus preventing wage defaults from developing into applications to the PWIF.
Sustaining Vigorous Enforcement against Wage Offences
1.11In 2022, the LD sustained its all-out efforts to combat wage offences. Territory-wide inspection campaigns targeted at offence-prone trades were launched by labour inspectors. Apart from proactive inspections to check compliance, we widely publicised our complaint hotline (2815 2200) and collected intelligence on non-payment of wages in various industries through an early warning system in collaboration with trade unions. We conducted prompt investigation into suspected wage offences so as to facilitate speedy prosecution.
1.12We continued to take out prosecution against employers and responsible individuals of companies for wage offences. We also strengthened our educational and promotional efforts to remind employers of their statutory obligation to pay wages on time and to encourage employees to lodge claims promptly and come forward as prosecution witnesses.
Vigorous Enforcement against Illegal Employment
1.13The LD collaborated with the Police and the Immigration Department to combat illegal employment activities. A total of 36 joint operations were mounted in the year.
Working Hours Policy
1.14The LD continued to engage its industry-based tripartite committees to formulate working hours guidelines, with suggested sector-specific working hours arrangements, overtime compensation arrangements and good working hours management measures for reference and adoption by employers and employees.
Safety and Health at Work
Safety of Major Public Works Projects (PWPs)
1.15In light of the commencement of major PWPs (including major infrastructure projects), the LD continued to urge contractors to enhance construction site safety through stepping up inspection and enforcement, as well as promotion and education. These included conducting comprehensive and in-depth surprise inspections of major PWP sites with high risk processes or poor safety performance to scrutinise the safe system of work and safety management system of duty holders. We continued to participate actively in site safety management committee meetings of major PWPs to keep close tabs on the projects’ occupational safety and health (OSH) conditions and risks, with a view to devising more focused inspection strategies. During the meetings, we gave advice on work processes of higher risk and urged the contractors and relevant duty holders to conduct risk assessments, devise safe working method statements and implement safety measures as early as possible. We also strengthened the coordination with the Development Bureau, works departments and other public works project clients to enhance the site safety measures of major PWPs, with a view to ensuring more effective control of risks by contractors. We also launched enforcement operations with the Marine Department on sea-based construction works to deter work practices from contravening safety requirements.
Safety of Renovation, Maintenance, Alteration and Addition (RMAA) Works
1.16The volume of RMAA works is expected to grow further with the continuous ageing of buildings in Hong Kong and the erection of many new buildings.
1.17The LD continued to step up inspection and enforcement efforts to monitor RMAA works and deter contractors from adopting unsafe work practices, so as to enhance the occupational safety condition of RMAA works. Territory-wide special enforcement operations (SEO) on RMAA works with emphasis on high risk processes, such as work-at-height, truss-out scaffolding works, lifting operations and electrical work were also launched. During the special operations, 306 suspension/improvement notices were issued and 232 prosecutions were taken out. The LD has also stepped up area patrols to inspect RMAA works sites in a timely manner to combat high-risk work processes, including unsafe work-above-ground activities and improper erection, dismantling or use of truss-out scaffolds.
1.18On the fronts of education and promotion, we organised a series of intensive promotion and publicity campaigns, targeting RMAA works, as well as the related work-at-height and truss-out scaffolding works to strengthen the safety awareness of all parties involved. These included launching a two-year publicity campaign in collaboration with the Occupational Safety and Health Council (OSHC) with a wide range of initiatives to impress upon different stakeholders, such as contractors and workers engaged in RMAA works as well as property owners, the importance of work safety more effectively. We also partnered with the Home Affairs Department to organise publicity and promotional activities to promulgate work safety at the district level.
1.19In 2022, the LD organised in collaboration with the OSHC, Construction Industry Council and the Housing Department a series of safety webinars concerning RMAA works to engage industry stakeholders in exploring means to further enhance construction safety. Given the occurrence of work-above-ground accidents involving small-scale renovation and repair works from time to time, the LD collaborated with the OSHC as well as the property management and construction industries to launch the “Promoting the Use of Light-duty Working Platforms Scheme Phase II”. Through property management companies, step platforms and hop-up platforms (light-duty working platforms) would be lent to the contractors and workers for conducting above-ground RMAA works in the estates or residential buildings free of charge, so that ladders would not be used for such work.
Follow-up Investigations of Serious and Fatal Work Accidents
1.20The LD is highly concerned about the serious and fatal work accidents that happened in 2022, including the collapse of a tower crane in Sau Mau Ping, the collapse of a suspended working platform in the Mid-levels, and the fall of a giant screen at the Hong Kong Coliseum. We commenced immediate on-site investigations as soon as we were notified of the accidents to identify the causes and recommend improvement measures. We also issued suspension notices to the relevant duty holders, suspending the work processes concerned until we were satisfied that measures to abate the relevant risks had been taken. We would ascertain the liability of the duty holders concerned and take actions pursuant to the law if there was any violation of the OSH legislation, including initiating prosecutions against relevant duty holders.
1.21In addition, having considered the nature of the accidents, the LD launched a series of follow-up actions, for example, conducting targeted SEO and stepping up our enforcement efforts. When it was reasonable to believe that carrying out certain work process or operating certain machinery may pose a considerable OSH risk, we would suspend relevant work activities immediately and issue advisory letters to duty holders/stakeholders concerned, urging them to take appropriate safety measures with a view to preventing recurrence of similar accidents. On the fronts of publicity and promotion as well as education and training, the LD in collaboration with the Construction Industry Council, OSHC and relevant organisations organised safety seminars after the occurrence of individual serious or fatal accidents to explain the accident related statutory requirements and preventive measures to the industry.
Safety Promotional Campaigns
1.22With regard to the construction industry, to continue to improve its safety performance, the LD, in collaboration with the OSHC and related organisations, organised the “Construction Industry Safety Award Scheme” again to inculcate a work safety culture in the industry and to enhance the safety awareness of employers, employees and their families. The scheme featured a variety of activities which included safety performance competitions, roving exhibitions, safety quizzes and an award presentation ceremony. We also produced radio programmes and the making-of the Award Scheme, as well as broadcast Announcements in the Public Interest (APIs) and promotional films on television/radio and public transport.
1.23Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the LD again suspended the “Catering Industry Safety Award Scheme” in 2022 to prevent the risk of spreading the virus as a result of group gatherings. However, with a view to maintaining the momentum of the industry on OSH improvement, the LD launched “Catering Industry Safety Promotional Campaign 2022/2023” to enhance the work safety and health awareness of employers and employees.
Strengthening Publicity of OSH Complaint Channels
1.24Through an online OSH complaint platform, the LD facilitates employees and members of the public to report unsafe working conditions with mobile electronic devices, so that the LD can conduct inspections in a more targeted manner and carry out prompt follow-up actions pursuant to the risk-based principle. The LD is promoting complaint channels through different publicity measures, including broadcasting relevant TV API/Radio API on TV/Radio stations; placing advertisements on newspapers, displaying advertisements at prominent locations and public transport; disseminating handy card holders printed with details of the complaint channels at the Service Centers of Workers Registration; and promulgating the information of complaint channels in Mandatory Safety Training Courses and the LD’s OSH publications.
Work Safety Alert Animation
1.25The LD continued to produce Work Safety Alert in the form of animation videos to enable the industry to better comprehend how some accidents happened and the necessary safety measures to be taken to prevent such accidents. Two animation videos were produced, and uploaded to the LD’s website and disseminated through various channels in 2022. The LD continued to give sub-titles to the animation videos in different languages of diverse races in order to enhance the publicity and promotion targeting workers of diverse races.
Continuous Refinement of Mandatory Safety Training (MST) Courses
1.26In 2022, the LD continued to refine the MST courses, including commencing the review of mandatory basic safety training course (construction work) and MST courses of confined spaces operation to raise the workers’ awareness of the causes and risks of accidents and their ability to eliminate these risks in order to prevent accidents. We also continued to conduct different modes of inspections to enhance the monitoring of course quality.
Managing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases risk in the work environment
1.27The LD, in collaboration with the OSHC, launched the “Heart Caring Campaign” in May 2022. Through health risk assessment, dissemination of healthy lifestyle information and various promotional activities, the Campaign encourages employees in the property management and construction industries to develop habits of healthy living with a view to preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (CCVDs). Under the campaign, as at end-2022, 1 164 organisations from the two industries have signed the “Heart Caring Charter” and implemented health-friendly measures at the workplace, such as regular dissemination of health information to employees, provision of healthier drinks and snacks to employees, organisation of physical activities, etc.
Pilot Rehabilitation Programme for Employees Injured at Work
1.28The LD has commissioned a service provider and rolled out the three-year Pilot Rehabilitation Programme for Employees Injured at Work in September 2022. The programme adopts a case management approach to provide timely private out-patient rehabilitation treatment services for injured construction employees to facilitate their early recovery and return to work. As at end-2022, 131 injured construction employees have participated in the programme.
The Labour Department rolled out the 3-year Pilot Rehabilitation Programme for Employees Injured at Work in September 2022
The service provider engaged by the Labour Department set up a Work Injury Rehabilitation Office in Jordan
Contacts with Other Labour Administrations
1.29The LD maintained liaison and interflows with other labour administrations through participation in various activities in 2022.
1.30In May to June 2022, a tripartite team comprising representatives from the Government, employers and employees, led by the then Commissioner for Labour, Chris Sun, participated in the 110th Session of the International Labour Conference via video conferencing, as part of the delegation of the People’s Republic of China.
1.31In December 2022, a tripartite team comprising representatives from the Government, employers and employees, led by the Assistant Commissioner for Labour (Employment Services), Jade Wong, attended the 17th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting of the International Labour Organisation in Singapore, as part of the delegation of the People’s Republic of China.
Assistant Commissioner for Labour (Employment Services) and members of the tripartite team attended the 17th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting in Singapore