The unscrupulous recruiters charging Hong Kong builders HK$500 a day to get them a job

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.

The pair arranged for the workers, who later earned HK$1,100 a day, to be hired. The nine then had to pay between HK$150 and HK$250 per day to the managers as a “referral fee”, with some afraid of losing their jobs if they did not.

Yee said middlemen also demanded cash from unqualified construction workers to help them get jobs. In one instance in 2014, where a construction site was looking for workers with three years’ experience, an agent hired three unqualified workers and asked them for up to HK$500 commission every day, out of the HK$1,700 daily wage.

The agent was jailed for 13 months last March for obtaining HK$360,000 from the construction company through deception.

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“Whether it jeopardises the quality of work is not part of our investigation. But we do report the matter to the employer for possible follow-up action,” Yee said.

She admitted investigations could sometimes be difficult, as most of the deals involved cash and were made on construction sites without signed documents. She urged workers to report any requests for money to the ICAC.

Bribery laws make it an offence for an agent to accept money or favours as an inducement in relation to an employer’s business without permission. Anyone found guilty can be jailed for a maximum of seven years and fined up to HK$500,000.

According to the latest figures from the Legislative Council, about 9 per cent of the city’s 4 million workers are in construction.

Between January and November last year the agency received 2,494 non-election-related complaints, of which two-thirds – 1,655 cases – were against people in the private sector and 27 per cent against government departments. The remaining 7 per cent involved public bodies.

The commission prosecuted 176 individuals in cases that were not election-related in the first 11 months, down 24 per cent.