Hong Kong Housing Authority attaches great importance to wage arrears incident of construction workers of public housing development project at Tung Chung Area 100
At about 9.30am today (November 8), around 70 workers engaged in a public housing development project at Tung Chung Area 100 gathered at Ying Tung Estate and later proceeded to the construction site nearby to demand their outstanding wages payment. Representatives of the main contractor (Aggressive Construction Company Limited) were present at the site to understand the situation, and a chief architect of the Housing Department (HD) also reached to the site to assess the situation and render appropriate assistance. The Police and officers of the Labour Department also quickly arrived at the site to maintain order and handle the situation.
The Housing Authority (HA) has always processed the payment to the main contractor according to the contract provision and established mechanism, and has instructed the main contractor to properly handle the wage arrangements for the workers of its sub-contractors and resolve any issues of outstanding wages payment. Top management of the HD has required the main contractor to actively resolve the wage arrears of the workers and targeted to settle the outstanding payment in November. The HA attaches great importance to workers' rights and will closely monitor the progress while working with the main contractor to resolve the wages issues.
Meeting attendance of members of District Councils in 2024
The Home Affairs Department (HAD) made the following clarifications today (January 2) regarding certain media reports on the meeting attendance of the current-term members of the District Councils (DCs) in 2024:
(1) The current-term DC members were diligent in their work, with over 98 per cent of 470 members having attended all DC meetings or were only absent with the DC's consent; over 90 per cent having attended all committee/working group meetings or were only absent with the DC's consent. Aside from attending DC meetings, each DC member on average attended 28 committee/working group meetings;
(2) all DC members fulfilled the requirement under the Performance Monitoring Guidelines for Members of the DCs (the Guidelines), i.e. attendance rate of not lower than 80 per cent and no DC members were in violation of the requirement; certain reports were incorrect in stating that some DC members were in violation of the Guidelines due to their absence at meetings since absence at an individual meeting was not a violation in itself; and
(3) for the purpose of calculating attendance, the Guidelines stipulate certain reasons for absence that would be consented by the DCs, including sickness and attendance at another meeting or an activity on behalf of the DCs etc. If a DC member were absent from meetings due to the aforementioned reasons with the DC's consent, the absence would not affect his/her attendance rate. If a DC member were absent from meetings due to other reasons (i.e. personal matters), the absence would be counted towards his/her attendance rate.
The HAD hoped that media outlets and members of the public would have an accurate understanding of DC members' attendance situation at meetings. The current-term DC members' attendance rate at meetings was the highest amongst all previous terms, which fully demonstrated DC members' efforts and work in improving governance at the district level.
