As July drew to a close, the Employment Support Scheme (ESS) Secretariat published the list of the sixth batch of employers who have received wage subsidies, covering about 11,600 applicants and subsidies totalling about 4.7 billion HKD. These employers have committed to maintaining a total paid headcount of about 200,000.
The ESS Secretariat will start the disbursement of wage subsidies to the seventh batch of about 17,300 successful employer applicants next week, with subsidies totalling about $6.4 billion covering around 283,000 employees. The wage subsidies involved in all seven batches amount to about $40.5 billion, covering nearly 138,000 employers and a total committed headcount of paid employees of about 1.75 million. After excluding 12,500 ineligible applications, the ESS Secretariat has completed processing nearly 90% of the applications from employers and is working on the remaining 18,300 applications. Meanwhile, the $7,500 one-off subsidy will be disbursed to the seventh batch of 3,900 self-employed people next week, involving $29.6 million.
The Government noted that around 190 employers' organisations have been checked under the monitoring and auditing mechanisms of the ESS. It encouraged employees and the public to report scheme abuse or violations by employers to the ESS Secretariat.
Since the publication on June 22 of the list of employers who have received wage subsidies, 229 reports have been received. The cases mainly involved unreasonable staff reductions, dismissal of employees, late payment of wages or pay cuts, and suspected company closure or change of operator.
The secretariat has referred 26 reports to the Labour Department and one case to Customs.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
