Three employers fined over $40,000 for wage offences

Updated at 4.53pm: A company director and two employers were together fined $46,400 late on Monday for committing wage offences under the Employment Ordinance (EO).

The prosecutions were launched by the Labour Department, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

Yung Lun-fat, a company director, failed to pay wages to the three employees within seven days of the expiry of the wage period and the termination of employment. He was fined $6,400 at the North Kowloon Magistrates' Court.

Yung personally sub-contracted a construction project and employed three employees to work at a construction site. He later set up a limited company with himself as a director and asked his employees to sign an employment contract with the limited company.

He then denied being the employer of the workers, alleging the limited company was their employer. But the Labour Department found Yung liable for non-payment of wages.

Meanwhile, Pacpo Investments and Touch Fashion Company were fined $30,000 and $10,000, respectively, for failing to pay wages to employees on time.

Under Hong Kong law, an employer who fails 'wilfully and without reasonable excuse' to pay wages to employees is liable to a maximum fine of $200,000 and a year's imprisonment.