The unscrupulous recruiters charging Hong Kong builders HK$500 a day to get them a job
- Independent Commission Against Corruption reveals complaints have almost tripled over past two years
- ‘Unspoken rules’ of industry not an excuse for breaking law, says chief investigator
Corruption complaints involving the construction industry have almost tripled over the past two years as recruiters extort cash from workers for job referrals, the city’s graft-buster has revealed.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) received 31 complaints last year and 32 in 2017, compared with 12 in 2016. The cases spanned a range of building projects at public housing estates, commercial buildings and private construction sites.
The agency prosecuted 12 people in connection with eight different cases in 2018 and 2017. There was only one prosecution in 2016.
Grace Yee Hin-lai, the agency’s chief investigator, said the most common cases involved recruiters asking workers for a regular “referral fee” or “tea money” after the workers had been hired. Some victims, earning about HK$1,100 a day, had to hand over more than a third to a middleman.
“The court has stated clearly that such corruption is a serious crime, as it also takes wages from the worker,” Yee said. “The industry’s ‘unspoken rules’ cannot be used as an excuse.”
In September 2017, two managers in charge of a public construction site were jailed for a year for taking a total of HK$164,375 from nine workers over 13 months.