In response to media enquiries today (13 July 2011) regarding service contractors, a spokesperson for The Link Management Limited (“The Link”) made the following statement:
All workers enjoy paid rest days and paid meal breaks
To promote sustainable development in society and the economy, The Link announced at the end of April this year that it will support the offer of paid rest days and paid meal breaks by our service contractors to cleaning workers, security guards, staff of car parks and maintenance workers. This is in line with The Link’s arrangements for its own staff. With the enactment of the Minimum Wage Ordinance, The Link has committed to all of its service contractors that assistance would be rendered and contractual sums adjusted if extra costs are incurred in fulfilling the requirements for paid rest days and paid meal breaks.
The Link has demanded that all service contractors offer paid rest days and paid meal breaks to the workers concerned, and we will pay them the extra costs after verifying the relevant information. To ensure that the workers are paid accordingly, the service contractors must produce all staff payroll records when applying for the extra payments. Among the 15 service contractors of The Link, 3 have submitted requests for extra payments together with the payroll records. These applications are all being processed.
Fresh market operators are tenants of The Link, but not service contractors. We have no right to intervene in their employment of staff or service contractors, but we will keep an eye on their business behaviour to ensure no illegal acts are committed.
About staff wage levels
The Minimum Wage Ordinance has come into effect, and it is the legal duty of all employers to offer the statutory minimum wage. Staff employed by The Link’s service contractors and market operators are encouraged to report cases of law-breaking to the Labour Department or to us. We will take all reported cases seriously. It is stated in our contracts with service contractors that they must abide by the laws of Hong Kong.
The Link’s management team will closely monitor compliance when implementing the Minimum Wage Ordinance by our service contractors. Contracts will be terminated immediately if any violations of the statutory requirements are confirmed.
