The Employment Support Scheme (ESS) Secretariat on September 16 notified the first batch of 20,000 successful employer applicants of the results for the scheme's second tranche with subsidies totalling $7.2 billion to cover a committed headcount of nearly 290,000 paid employees.

The successful applicants were notified through email and SMS. Applicants can log in to the ESS portal to check the results.

In the first batch of employers who will receive wage subsidies for the second tranche, almost all of them had been granted subsidies in the first tranche.

Among them, 77% have not breached the two undertakings of the first tranche. They are not required to pay penalties or return subsidies to the Government.

For the 23% of employers who have not fully used the subsidy amount received on paying wages to employees in June or July, or the number of paid employees was less than that in March, the Government will claw back the unspent amount or request them to pay penalties, which will be deducted from the subsidies of the second tranche.

Among the first batch of employers who will have their wage subsidies deducted, 97% of those employers' deducted amount accounted for less than 5% of the respective subsidy they received for June or July.

Regarding the mandatory contribution for the last month of the first tranche’s subsidy period, employers had to remit mandatory contributions for employees by September 10.

However, having considered the impact of COVID-19, the Government will accept Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) record certificates to be provided by MPF trustees if employers' MPF contributions for August have been settled on or before September 30 to examine whether any redundancies have been made.

As for the mandatory contribution within the subsidy period of the second tranche, employers are required to remit mandatory contributions for employees by October 12, November 10 and December 10.

For enquiries, email enquiry@employmentsupport.hk or call 1836 122.