School warned over unpaid MPF for part-time cleaners

This article is a rewrite of a report from May 2012.

Employers defaulting on MPF contributions are nothing new — this was a textbook case of MPF default contributions, and schools are no exception. A former part-time school worker accused a Tuen Mun secondary school of skipping MPF contributions for five or six part-time cleaners in 2005–06, only paying up after a complaint last year. She criticised the MPFA and the Education Bureau for settling for a warning.

How did the school default?

The worker, aged 50, was a part-time cleaner at the school in 2005–06, working three hours a day for about HK$1,900 a month, and later spent six years as a full-time school worker. Only after contacting a union last year did she learn employers must contribute for part-time cleaners; the school had not contributed for her, involving just over HK$1,000, and she complained to the MPFA and the Education Bureau. A school staff union said it was its first case of part-time cleaners being short-changed — most schools employ five or six such workers.

Why only a warning, not prosecution?

The Education Bureau said the school pleaded ignorance of the law and had followed up with payment. An MPFA spokesman said legal advice had been sought: with only a few hundred dollars involved and the school having corrected the breach promptly, prosecution was not in the public interest — so the school got a warning. The principal apologised for an accounting oversight, explaining the school’s MPF payments were reimbursed dollar-for-dollar by the Education Bureau, leaving no incentive to withhold them; the bureau said it had reminded the school to follow the law.

How did the union respond?

The worker accused the two departments of not following procedures, smelling of officials shielding each other. A union leader criticised both departments for failing their monitoring role and demanded the authorities press schools to comply and prosecute offenders.