Social welfare sector Fernando Cheung raised questions about pay fraud in the absence of activist legislator Leung Kwok-hung, who left the Legco chamber to protest outside chief executive-designate Donald Tsang's election office on Wednesday morning.

Cheung's questions referred to complaints lodged against government contractors who provided services such as cleaning.

Quoting Leung, Cheung said employees of some contractors were being forced to work without taking leave over periods as long as five to six years, and that the government only deals with these cases after receiving complaints from the workers' unions.

Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma replied that in the first five months of this year, Labour Department officials met more than 1,100 employees of government contractors and conducted more than 300 inspections.

Five contractors had received 31 summonses by the beginning this month, while only three were issued for the whole of last year. Ma said that one of the five contractors - who alone had received 15 summonses - has been banned from bidding for other government contracts for a year. But no explanation was given about the surge in summonses given this year.

``The government will seriously tackle the problem of employees being manipulated,'' he said. ``If employees are treated unfairly, they must stand up and testify against the employers.''

Unionist legislators Li Fung-ying and Chan Yeun-han both said the government must ensure that whistle blowers do not lose their jobs.

Ma replied, ``It is illegal for employers to threaten their staff or to stop them from lodging complaints regarding contract violations, which carries a maximum penalty of HK$100,000.''

According to the government's outsourcing agreements, only tenderers whose records show three pay violations or six incidents of dereliction of duty are barred from bidding for contracts.

Ma insisted that outsourcing remained beneficial for the government and should not be stopped because of problems with individual contractors.

A Labour Department spokeswoman said officials will take the initiative to inspect if contractors violate employment agreements, but the employees involved must be willing to testify.

matthew.lee@singtaonewscorp.com