The care sector in Hong Kong has until 31 May to import care workers after the Labour Department (LD) relaxed certain requirements under the Supplementary Labour Scheme (SLS).
An LD spokesman said, “During the outbreaks of the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, residents of hundreds of residential care homes (RCHs) for the elderly and persons with disabilities in Hong Kong have been infected which have substantially increased the need for care services. At the same time, more and more care workers are also infected which further aggravate the already tight manpower situation”.
“To alleviate the grave challenge of manpower shortage in the care sector, the Government has decided to exempt the care sector from the prerequisite arrangement of undergoing a four-week local recruitment under the SLS, flexibly approve the number of care workers to be imported having regard to the needs of individual RCHs, and suspend the circulation of each application to the Labour Advisory Board. These seek to expedite the processing of applications to address the urgent needs. Besides, subvented RCHs can apply for importation of care workers in accordance with the same requirements. All applicant RCHs shall continue to comply with the other SLS requirements.”
At the same time, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) has employed 1,000 contract care staff directly from the mainland to reinforce manpower. The personnel will be retained for three months working in community isolation facilities and RCHs for the elderly, persons with disabilities, and children who are suspected or confirmed infected with Covid-19.
