Following is a question by the Hon Ho Kai-ming and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Dr Law Chi-kwong, in the Legislative Council today (January 23):
Question :
Will the Government inform this Council of the respective numbers of applications (i) received and (ii) approved in the past five years which were made under the Supplementary Labour Scheme for importation of care workers for residential care homes for the elderly; in respect of the applications approved, a breakdown of the number of care workers by education level and type of qualifications, as well as their current median monthly wage?
Reply :
President,
My reply to Hon Ho's question is as follows:
From 2013 to 2017, employers of the elderly care service sector applied to import 1 069, 1 885, 1 361, 2 039 and 1 694 care workers respectively under the Supplementary Labour Scheme (SLS). The numbers of imported care workers approved in these five years were 651, 1 377, 1 035, 1 383 and 1 510 respectively. The collation of relevant statistics of 2018 will be completed in the first quarter of 2019. The vetting of applications received towards year-end may be completed in the following year, and hence the number of imported workers approved in the year does not correspond to the number of imported workers applied for in the same year.
The Labour Department does not have information on the educational attainment or qualifications of imported care workers employed by employers. According to the requirements under SLS, employers should pay wages to imported workers at a level no less than the median monthly wages of local workers in comparable positions. According to statistics of the Census and Statistics Department, the current median monthly wage of care worker post is $13,000.
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