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Employment contract for banks staff violates laws

The Young Reporter (1994, May 27), 26(07), pp. 7.
Author: Maria Lo.
Permanent URL - https://sys01.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/bujspa/purl.php?&did=bujspa0002069

By MARIA LO

LOCAL banks’ employment provisions violate labour ordinances, according to the Clerical and Professional Employees Association (CPEA) .

Mr Ng Wai-lam, spokesman of the CPEA, said some bank employees who quitted their jobs within one year had to pay one-month salary to the banks as compensation.

The association had recently reported a study on local bank staffs welfare.

The banks which require their staff to pay back one-month salary said that it was a kind of compensation according to their own employment contracts.

Mr Ng said the employee did not need to give compensation if he or she had worked over a year.

He said the banks had no evidence to prove the actual loss owing to a staffs resignation.

“The compensation issue between employees and employers should be handled by the court instead of the banks themselves,” he continued.

And he said the banks had no right to ask their staff to give compensation even if it was stated in the employment contract.

“The contract itself violates the Labour Ordinance,” he said.

A manager of a Chinese capital bank denied the exploitation of existing employment provisions.

“The bank usually pre-pays one-month salary to the staff, so it is reasonable to get back the amount when the staff quit their jobs,” the manager said.

“If the employee is unwilling to pay back the amount, he or she should have to work for a month more instead of paying monetary compensation,” she added.

A spokesman of the Labour Department said the department had no right to interfere in the operation of a bank and the way of handling staff.

“What the department can do is to advise the banks to amend the employment contracts’ provisions,” he said.

He said waiting was inevitable when handling financial disputes between employees and employers due to the limited human resources of the department.

Mr Lee Wai-hung, a research secretary of the Hongkong Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood said the department was too passive in handling financial disputes between the employees and employers.

“The louder the voice the public has, the more effectively the department can handle labour disputes,” he said.

Mr Ng said that welfare provisions like provident funds and housing loans were usually unfair to the employees.

“For example, banks usually base the calculation of provident fund on the basic salary and some allowances of their employees,” he said.

He said the employees benefited less when other allowances were not counted in the calculation of provident fund.

Mr Ng also said the amount of housing loan at low lending rates offered to staff varied according to different banks.

Mr Lee said that an overall research of the labour force in Hongkong was necessary to give a comprehensive information on salaries and welfare.

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