A Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong has been barred from hiring imported workers under a government scheme for two years as an administrative sanction for sacking local employees.
The Labour Department announced on Friday that it would penalise Top One Dance Club & Chinese Cuisine in Tsim Sha Tsui following an investigation. The probe found the company had dismissed local employees after hiring imported labour under the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme (ESLS).
The authorities withdrew the “approvals-in-principle” for importing workers granted to the company under the scheme. Its applications for importing workers will also not be processed for two years.
A department spokesperson said local workers must be prioritised in recruitment exercises under the ESLS.
“In the event of redundancy, imported workers must be retrenched first,” a statement from the department read.
The dismissal of local workers was a violation of the requirements of the ESLS, which was rolled out in June 2023 to alleviate manpower shortages across various sectors. The policy requires employers to undertake a four-week local recruitment exercise for each vacancy to ensure they have “genuine difficulties” in recruiting suitable staff locally.
Earlier this month, the Labour Department sanctioned pest control firm Amala Ltd after the company rejected local candidates and hired imported workers instead. Their case marked the first sanction since the ESLS was implemented.
As of the end of March, Hong Kong had imported more than 54,000 non-local workers under the ESLS, according to government figures, with most of employees working in the city’s catering industry.
In April, the Eating Establishment Employees General Union said that over 200 employees had reported being fired and replaced by non-local workers employed through the ESLS.
In May, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun defended the scheme against claims that it led to a rising unemployment rate in the city. He said the government’s manpower policy “has always prioritised local workers.”
The government rolled out a hotline in June, asking people to call if they suspect employers are replacing local employees with imported workers amid ongoing complaints about the city’s non-local labour schemes.
