Hong Kong’s new social work licensing body has suspended 11 social workers of their qualifications for up to three years, including eight with convictions related to the protests in 2019.
According to the Social Workers Registration Board’s notices published in the South China Morning Post and Sing Tao Daily, the social workers had been convicted of offences including taking part in an unlawful assembly and assault intending to prevent arrest.
Published on Wednesday, the notices listed the full names, offences and the period of their social work licence suspension.
The social workers’ licences were suspended because they had been “convicted of offence that may bring the profession of social worker into disrepute and is punishable with imprisonment,” the notices read.
The Social Workers Registration Board was overhauled in July after authorities said changes were needed to better protect national security. The changes gave government-appointed members a majority on the board, and also barred those convicted of national security crimes from being social workers.
In August, the board announced that it had permanently stripped the qualifications of Sze Tak-loy and Ben Chung, both of whom were convicted in the city’s largest national security case. Sze and Chung were among 45 pro-democracy figures convicted of conspiring to commit subversion.
Around 28,000 people in Hong Kong hold social workers’ licences. Social workers must renew their licences every year, and the board is empowered to deny renewals to social workers who have been convicted of an offence.
Eddie Tse, a social worker who protested against the board’s restructuring, told HKFP on Friday it was “unreasonable” that the social workers had their licences suspended when they were renewed by the previous board, which would have been aware of their convictions.
“The previous board said they were suitable. So where is the standard?” he said to HKFP in Cantonese. “Saying they affect the image of social workers is a very subjective thing.”
Tse said that according to the mechanism, social workers who were suspended would not automatically regain their license after the suspension period. They would need to apply again, he said.
“There is a question of whether they will be approved when the time comes,” he said.
6 unlawful assembly convictions
Among the eight social workers whose convictions were related to the 2019 protests, six were convicted of unlawful assembly charges.
Three of the cases were linked to protests near Polytechnic University, the site of a week-long campus siege in November 2019 that saw intense clashes between police and protesters. They were jailed for one year and two months each, and had their social work licences suspended for three years.
Another social worker, whose unlawful assembly and false imprisonment charges were linked to a protest in Mong Kok in July, also had his licence suspended for three years.
Of the two social workers convicted of other protest-related offences, one had his license suspended for one year, and another for six months. The former was convicted of contempt of court, while the latter was convicted of assault with intent to prevent lawful apprehension.
Three other social workers saw their licenses suspended for making false statements under the Housing Ordinance, theft and dangerous driving offences.
Herman Hui, the chairperson of the restructured Social Workers Registration Board, said in an interview with iCable that the board hoped to improve the image of the city’s social workers.
“If you learn that your social worker has this kind of background, would you still continue accepting their services? Or be happy to disclose your personal matters… [and] family issues to them?” he said in Cantonese.
Lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen, who represents the social welfare sector, told local media outlets that he hoped the board would not make political judgements when evaluating the renewal applications.
