Protest at unpaid wages

More than 60 workers who say wages were not paid refused to leave a restaurant in Tuen Mun yesterday after they found the premises had a new tenant.

The Federation of Trade Unions, which helped the 65 workers in filing claims at the Labour Department, said the owner of the Sun Choi seafood restaurant had promised to settle the bill once the restaurant was sold but had not kept his word.

'Link Reit [the landlord] told us the place has been leased out and asked us to leave, and there are decorators working in there,' unionist Yau Wing-shum said. 'It is just common sense that the restaurant is already sold.'

As well as June wages, a month's notice and severance payments, the workers say the employer owes them MPF contributions for the past 19 months. The union estimated losses of about $600,000.

The Labour Department arranged a meeting between the employer and the workers yesterday to help reach a settlement.