Workers demand back payments

About 30 cleaners have staged a protest, complaining that the outsourced company that employed them has defaulted on redundancy pay amounting to HK$2 million. The cleaners took their protests to the headquarters of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department in Queensway Government Offices on Monday.

The Cleaning Workers Union said the contracting firm has been in default since it dismissed its staff in December last year. About 160 affected workers won an award from the Labour Tribunal in July this year. But the workers complain they still have not received their back pay.They also stated their dissatisfaction that the department continues contacting the firm. They claimed the value of the contract at HK$50 million. The workers' representative asked that the government place the firm on the black list and cancel the firms' new contract. They also demanded that the Labor Department assist them in acquiring their redundancy.

Eight jailed in election fraud

Eight people who pleaded guilty to vote-rigging during last year's district council elections were each sentenced by the Kowloon City Magistracy on Monday to two months jail.

The accused were among 21 people charged by the ICAC with electoral offences in the King's Park Constituency. All were released on bail pending appeals.

Among those convicted were three sisters. The lawyer for the youngest, Yim Sze-ming, told the court that Yim had volunteered to campaign for one of the candidates, Wong Biu, only because she had recently broken up with her boyfriend and was looking for something to do in her free time. All three sisters had provided false addresses in their voter registrations. In passing sentence, Magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen remarked that the offences were extremely serious and demanded a prison term.

Glitch crashes Miss HK vote

The Miss Hong Kong Pageant was forced to return to its long established practice Sunday, after the plan to allow the public to vote through the Internet hit a glitch. The top three candidates ultimately were chosen by a panel of judges.The competition, held by TVB, named its winners on Sunday. Carat Cheung, was named Miss Hong Kong, Jacqueline Wong was runner up and Tracy Chu took the award as second runner up. TVB Deputy Director of External Affairs, Tsang Sing-min, apologized for the Internet breakdown. He said the company underestimated the number of people who would vote during the competition.

HK finds ancient supervolcano

The Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) will hold a media briefing off the Ninepin Islands on Thursday to introduce the discovery of an ancient supervolcano in Hong Kong. Situated in the south-eastern part of Hong Kong, High Island Supervolcano is the first of its kind discovered in south-eastern China. It last erupted about 140 million years ago. This important finding is the result of geological surveys carried out by the CEDD. A paper on the discovery was published in the US geophysical journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems in January this year.

China Daily

(HK Edition 08/28/2012 page1)