Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Following is a question by the Hon Lau Kwok-fan and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, in the Legislative Council today (April 16):
Question:
The Labour Department has implemented the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme (ESLS) since September 2023, suspending the general exclusion of the 26 job categories as well as unskilled or low-skilled posts (job categories) from labour importation for two years. The ESLS will expire in September this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the situation of labour importation for the aforesaid job categories since the implementation of ESLS, including (i) the number of imported workers who have arrived in Hong Kong to work and (ii) the median wage of imported workers, as well as the respective (iii) local employment rates and (iv) median wages of local workers for such job categories;
President,
To cope with the challenges brought about by manpower shortage and on the premise of ensuring employment priority for local workers, the Government has enhanced the mechanism for importation of labour. Apart from launching sector???specific labour importation schemes for the construction sector, transport sector, and residential care homes for the elderly and residential care homes for persons with disabilities, the Labour Department (LD) has implemented the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme (ESLS) since September 4, 2023, to suspend the general exclusion of the 26 job categories as well as unskilled or low-skilled posts from labour importation under the previous Supplementary Labour Scheme for two years.
In consultation with the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD), our reply to the Hon Lau Kwok-fan’s questions is as follows:
Employers approved to import workers under the ESLS are required to arrange for their prospective imported workers to submit visa/entry permit applications to the Immigration Department within the periods specified in the approval-in-principle letters (generally within six months from the issue dates of the letters). The time of imported workers arriving in Hong Kong depends on the progress of employers’ handling of relevant procedures. The LD does not maintain the number of imported workers who have arrived to work in Hong Kong under the ESLS.
As required by the ESLS, applicant employers must undertake local open recruitment and give priority to employing qualified local workers to fill the vacancies at a salary not lower than the median monthly wage of a comparable position in the market. The median monthly wage by major job categories is at Annex 2. The latest median monthly wage of other common posts is available in the List of Common Posts on LD’s ESLS dedicated webpage (www.labour.gov.hk/eng/plan/iwESLS.htm
The C&SD does not compile statistics on local employment rate by job categories under the ESLS.