Your editorial of August 24 headlined, 'Bullying workers', said that the Labour Department has been confronted by 13,590 claims involving unreasonable dismissal, or changes in contracts, in the first half of this year. The actual figure, however, is much smaller.
In the first half of the year, the department received 1,174 claims involving unreasonable dismissal or changes in contracts. Of these, 1,113 related to unreasonable dismissal and 61 to unreasonable variation of contract terms.
During the same period, the department received a number of other claims involving wages in lieu of notice, severance payment, long-service payment arising from termination of contract, and statutory payments under the Employment Ordinance. The total number of all claims received, including the above-mentioned 1,174 claims, was 13,590.
In response to the claims, the department conducted 16,736 conciliation meetings and helped settle more than 60 per cent of the cases. The resulting payout amounted to $82 million. Follow-up actions in respect of the other cases are in progress.
I hope the above gives a clearer picture of the current situation.
BERTHA CHENG for Commissioner for Labour