Apple Printing now faces MPFA lawsuit

Yvonne Chung

The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority has filed a claim in the District Court on behalf of affected employees over unpaid MPF contributions by Apple Daily Printing.

The new suit comes after the authority filed a lawsuit in the District Court last month against Apple Daily for defaulting on employees MPF contributions from April to June, and requesting the court to order it to pay the relevant contributions of more than HK$1.86 million.

The now defunct newspaper and Apple Daily Printing are both subsidiares of Next Digital Group.

The MPFA said it takes every case of employer violations seriously and, if necessary, would conduct a thorough investigation and take appropriate legal action.

It also called on affected staff to contact them if they need any assistance.

Earlier this year, Apple Daily was sued by an air-conditioning company, Johnson Controls Hong Kong, for failing to pay service costs and interest totaling over HK$2 million and in June, three firms related to Apple Daily were prosecuted for collusion with a foreign country.

Authorities have frozen HK$18 million of its assets and its employees have filed a complaint with the Labor Department claiming that the company failed to pay their wages on time.

Last week, Hong Kong's High Court ordered that Next Digital must be wound up. Founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, arrested under the national security law, is serving 20 months in prison over four unlawful assembly cases, and is scheduled to appear in court on December 28 for his national security case.