Firms face worker import ban if they shun Hongkongers
Any companies caught lying about not being able to find Hongkongers to work for them will be banned from a scheme to import workers, the government said on Sunday. From Monday, bosses will be able to bring in staff from outside the SAR for 26 professions previously excluded from the import programme, including hairdressers, salespeople and cashiers. Labour Secretary Chris Sun told a TVB programme that authorities aim to approve applications within three months, but employers must genuinely try to recruit locally before seeking staff from elsewhere. "Indeed, it's hard to have a yardstick to tell if they are genuine and reasonable. But we will ask each one of them to see why they haven't hired [locals]. Actually, we will also ask local people who went to the job interviews," he said. Any firms found to be lying about failing to find local staff will face a year-long ban from the import scheme, Sun said. He added that it is too early to say whether a mechanism will be put in place to cancel the importation of workers if necessary. "We understand the concerns labour unions have. So we have a mechanism where we discuss it with the Labour Advisory Board regularly. I think the best way is to see what the actual circumstances are through putting the scheme into practice," he said. "Based on the latest information, we can review the operation from time to time and see whether the scheme achieves the result we intended."