Company, directors fined with over $100,000 for flouting Hong Kong's EO

The Ikuto Bowls Lab Limited and its directors have been fined $102,000 for wage-related breaches under Hong Kong's Employment Ordinance (EO).

The Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts ordered the fine on Monday after the company and its two directors pleaded guilty to their violations.

The company violated the requirements of the EO after it failed to pay the wages of four employees within the designated seven days after the expiry of wage periods, according to Hong Kong's Labour Department (LD).

It also failed to pay an employee's statutory holiday pay and annual leave pay within statutory time limit totalling about $135,000.

The directors were prosecuted and fined for their "consent, connivance, or neglect" in the wage offences.

Wage-related breaches in Hong Kong

A spokesperson from the LD said the ruling will send a "strong message to all employers, directors and responsible officers of companies that they have to pay employees' wages, statutory holiday pay and annual leave pay within the statutory time limit stipulated in the EO."

"The LD will not tolerate these offences and will spare no effort in enforcing the law and safeguarding employees' statutory rights," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Hong Kong's Employment Ordinance states that an employer "should pay wages to an employee as soon as practicable but in any case, not later than seven days after the end of the wage period."

If the employer failed to pay within seven days, the EO said they would be required to pay interest on the outstanding amount of wages.

"An employer who wilfully and without reasonable excuse fails to pay interest on the outstanding amount of wages to the employee is liable to prosecution and, upon conviction, to a fine of $10,000," the EO read.

Last week, a director and company were also fined $51,000 for committing similar wage-related breaches to four employees.