Salary-cap boost for 1.74m workers

About 1.74 million workers - up from 1.3 million - will benefit from the amended Employment Support Scheme after the government lifted a salary cap for eligible employees, including part-timers.

Authorities proposed last month a new round of support to help small and medium-sized firms keep their workers who earn less than HK$30,000 a month amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Each company stands to receive HK$24,000 from May to July, or HK$8,000 each month, to help pay the salaries of eligible workers it employs.

But Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said yesterday at her press conference that after consulting stakeholders, the administration has decided to drop the salary cap and will also allow more companies to apply for the subsidy scheme.

The number of employees for each company that can benefit from the subsidy will be capped at 1,000.

"In order to dedicate more resources to small and medium businesses, we think that we should not offer full subsidies to large corporations, such as fast-food chains or franchised bus companies, which have many bus drivers and employees," she said.

"It is impossible for us to help 5,000, 6,000 or 7,000 employees working in big companies," Lam added.

Some companies, including supermarkets and pharmacies that were originally excluded from the scheme, are now placed under the "restricted list" but can apply the subsidies for only 100 employees at most.

Lam said employers can use their headcount during the fourth quarter in 2021 to apply for the subsidy, instead of using data back in 2020.

Part-timers and casual workers could also apply for half-rate subsidies under the latest changes.

Lam added that the amended scheme will also cover self-employed and workers aged over 65 if they possess a Mandatory Provident Fund account. She said they will ask the Legislative Council's Finance Committee for funding of HK$43 billion on Tuesday.

A lawmaker of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, Frankie Ngan Man-yu, welcomed the amendment, but he said authorities should set up an indicator for extending the scheme, such as if the unemployment rate could not go down to 3.9 percent.

Authorities should use a real-name system to ensure the subsidies are being used on the employees.

Ngan also said that authorities should extend the application period for the Temporary Unemployment Relief Scheme - a new government initiative to assist those who have lost their jobs due to the fifth wave of the epidemic. Applications are expected to end on Tuesday.

"In fact, quite a number of applicants are not that familiar with technology and require more time to file their applications and prepare relevant documents," he said.

Doris Ho Pui-ling, head of the Policy Innovation and Coordination Office, said during the briefing that the scheme has received 360,000 applications so far, of which 60,000 will be the first to receive the government's HK$10,000 subsidy under the scheme.

The subsidy will be automatically transferred to the applicants' MPF accounts within a week from next Tuesday, she said. Applicants can also visit the scheme's website to check their application status.

About 30 percent of the reviewed cases were not eligible for the subsidy, as some applicants' incomes were not within the HK$2,700 and HK$30,000 range, or they were not employees of the designated premises that were ordered to be closed.

Ho urged employees to file their applications as soon as possible.

"The online application is not that difficult as 340,000 of the 360,000 received so far are submitted online," she said, adding that citizens could dial the hotline - 1836128 - for help.

Meanwhile, the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Law Chi-kwong, said amendments to the Employment Ordinance have yet to be passed in the Legislative Council but employers should allow workers infected by Covid, or listed as close contacts, to go on sick leave instead of it being offset against their annual leave or imposing a no-pay leave.

Law urged employers to be more lenient when handling employees' absence from work due to their compliance with the anti-epidemic regulations.