A restaurant group that abruptly shut down 9 eateries final week owes staff round HK$5 million, a labour union says.
Talking on an RTHK radio present on Tuesday, the top secretary of the Consuming Institution Workers Normal Union, Wong Pit-man, mentioned the union was at present aiding over 100 staff at branches of Mee Lemongrass, Kokonoi Shokudo and Ma La Niang Zi to get well overdue salaries and pension contributions.
“We’ve not been capable of contact the house owners of the eating places but,” Wong mentioned.
The 9 eateries are a part of restaurant group Asia Catering, whose web site is now not in operation. A cached model of the location from April confirmed that the group was based in 2006 and operated manufacturers together with Tom Yum Tom Yum and Your Cup of Tea.
Mr. Leung, who was a kitchen employee at Ma La Niang Zi, mentioned workers had been advised with out warning final Wednesday at round 9 p.m. that they need to not come to work the following day because the restaurant was shutting down.
“We didn’t see any indicators,” he mentioned, including that the restaurant had not been ordering any much less stock than regular just lately.
HKFP has reached out to Asia Catering for remark.
Wong mentioned that if the union was unable to achieve the eating places’ house owners, the Labour Division would open a case and take them to court docket. The Labour Division’s Safety of Wages on Insolvency Fund would cowl the unpaid wages, although it might be a “gradual course of” that may take over a 12 months, Wong added.
‘All for nothing’
At a press convention by the union on Monday, workers mentioned they had been stunned by the sudden closures and having issue discovering new jobs at such quick discover.
Mr. Cheung, who had labored at Mee Lemongrass for nearly three years, mentioned he was owed HK$100,000, in keeping with Ming Pao newspaper.
“I’ve labored so laborious for thus lengthy, however now it’s prefer it was all for nothing,” he mentioned.
Some staff additionally found that the eating places had not been making legally-required contributions to their Obligatory Pension Fund accounts.
The MPF Authority mentioned on Monday that it had acquired 4 experiences this month from Asia Catering workers about lacking contributions, with three circumstances already taken to court docket for civil proceedings.
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