Hong Kong’s Social Workers Registration Board (SWRB) has moved to suspend activist Eddie Tse’s licence for three years, following his fraud conviction.
The activist is challenging the decision, which he called unfair and lacking transparency.
Under the new rules enacted last year, the board can suspend social workers’ licences once they are convicted of an offence. The new mechanism is part of a sweeping reform to the city’s social workers licensing system, a move the government said was needed to “safeguard national security.”
Tse, 68, said he received a letter, dated September 4, from the SWRB – the body that oversees the licensing of social workers – informing him that his licence would be suspended due to his fraud conviction in July.
He was charged with defrauding the government to collect welfare benefits from an elderly subsidy scheme earlier this year and sentenced to 120 hours of community service on July 24 after pleading guilty.
The fraud case came to light after Tse, a veteran activist, applied for legal aid in August last year for his judicial review – a legal tool to challenge government policies – of the authorities’ controversial plan to build the San Tin Technopole, a tech hub near the city’s border with mainland China.
In court hearings, his lawyer said Tse had been “reckless,” averaging his earnings over a year to estimate his monthly income and believing that he fell below the income threshold to qualify for the subsidy.
In the September letter, the registrar wrote that as an “experienced social worker,” he should have been familiar with social welfare systems and their regulations.
“Being convicted of such an offence was deemed by the board to have seriously damaged the professional reputation of social workers,” the letter continued.
‘Arbitrary’ system
As part of the reform passed in July last year, government appointees are given a majority on the SWRB, which is tasked with issuing qualifications for social workers.
The board is also empowered to suspend social workers’ licences at any time after they are charged with or convicted of an offence. The suspension can last up to five years, or even be permanent for serious or national security offences.
Before the overhaul, social workers’ licences only came under scrutiny during their annual renewal application. Unsuccessful applications were rare, Tse said.
Under the Social Workers Registration Ordinance, social workers receiving a suspension notice have 28 days to make a “written representation” to appeal the suspension.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after handing in his submission to the SWRB’s office in Shau Kei Wan, Tse said the mechanism for following up on social workers’ convictions was “arbitrary” and lacked standards and transparency.
He said the system did not give social workers in his position the chance to explain the reason for their offence.
Tse believes that part of social workers’ values is to fight for the rights of the marginalised. In the past, social workers who might have been convicted while doing so would not have had their licences stripped, he said.
“Now, it is very robotic. If you are convicted, that’s it; they don’t consider anything else. You will just lose your licence,” he said. “The consequence is, social workers will be too afraid to do these things.”
It is also unclear what standards the SWRB uses to determine whether an offence would “bring the profession of social worker into disrepute” – the basis of licence suspensions – and the length of suspension, Tse said.
‘Rash decisions’
Tse told reporters on Thursday that he expected that his licence would be suspended, but he was caught off guard by the three-year suspension.
“I thought maybe it would be suspended for six months,” he said.
Tse said he believed the punishment was targeted at him personally, rather than his conviction at large.
He said he hoped the board could create “channels for communication” so that social workers who stand to lose their licences could explain their case.
“Otherwise, there is no chance for [the board] to understand… and they would only be making rash decisions,” Tse added.
If the SWRB rejects Tse’s written representation, there are no other mechanisms to dispute the board’s decision. He would need to lodge a legal challenge in court, though he said he would not consider doing so.
The activist is currently unemployed, he said, and he has not been seeking a job in the social welfare sector, as his conviction and past advocacy work have made it difficult for him to find opportunities.
He said he had been applying for work related to environmental protection and occupational therapy assistance, the latter of which he recently obtained a qualification for.
Social workers suspended
In June, the Social Workers Registration Board said 24 social workers have had their licences suspended due to convictions that “bring the profession of social worker into disrepute.”
HKFP has reached out to the board for the latest figures.
Among those whose licences have been suspended by the SWRB is Jackie Chen. After being convicted in March of rioting during the 2019 protests and unrest, Chen was sentenced to four years in jail in April. She was deregistered for five years in June.
Another social worker, Lau Ka-tung, also had his licence suspended for five years in December, following his June 2020 conviction for obstructing police during a protest in 2019.
Two other social workers – Sze Tak-loy and Ben Chung – have permanently lost their licences due to convictions for national security offences. Both were among dozens of defendants in the city’s largest national security case relating to unofficial democratic primaries in 2020.
One person’s licence was permanently stripped due to a conviction for offences in “Schedule Two” of the ordinance, which lists serious crimes such as murder and rape.
It is unclear how many social workers have lodged “written representations” to appeal their suspensions.
