The Labour Inspection Division of the Labour Department was revamped on January 1 to improve the use of resources, increase its mobility and responsiveness and enhance enforcement effectiveness.

Permanent Secretary for Economic Development & Labour Matthew Cheung said the revamp demonstrates that the Labour Department is keeping pace with the latest developments.

The division now has 12 law-enforcement districts, each with a district office and a special team responsible for enforcing labour laws.

The district offices will be responsible for enforcing the Employment of Young Persons (Industry) Regulations, the Employment of Children Regulations, the compulsory insurance provisions under the Employees' Compensation Ordinance and Part IV B of the Immigration Ordinance that prohibits the employment of illegal workers.

In the course of enforcing these laws, district offices staff will also try to find out on site whether there are suspected breaches of the Employment Ordinance.

Suspected cases will be referred to the special enforcement teams for in-depth investigation and collection of evidence.

Wage offences on the increase

To clamp down on wage offences, the division conducted two blitz operations in 2003 to inspect eating places and retail outlets to ensure that employers pay wages in accordance with the Employment Ordinance, Mr Cheung said.

"In 2003, there were 445 convictions for wage offences, two times more than the 139 convictions in 2002," he said.

"As there is an upward trend of wage offences, the number of special enforcement teams has been increased from five to 12 after the revamp to strengthen the enforcement of the Employment Ordinance, particularly wage provisions, to safeguard employees' rights and benefits more effectively," he continued.

Division works with Police, Immigration

The division conducted 36 joint operations with the Police and Immigration Department last year to combat illegal employment.

This represented a substantial increase of 140% over 2002.

The number of illegal workers detected was 490 in 2003, up 44% over the figure in the previous year.