Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor holds a press conference at Central Government Offices in Hong Kong on May 12, 2020. (PARKER ZHENG / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG – The Hong Kong government will accept applications from May 25 for wage subsidies to the tune of HK$81 billion with the scheme now expanded to cover around an additional 290,000 employees, including those aged 65 or above and the self-employed, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday. 

Meeting the press before the weekly Executive Council meeting, Lam said employers can expect to receive a salary subsidy of up to HK$9,000 for each employee within three to four weeks of submitting their applications.  

CE Carrie Lam said employers can expect to receive a salary subsidy of up to HK$9,000 for each employee within three to four weeks of submitting their applications

The applications can be made in the first phase of the HK government’s Employment Support Scheme (ESS) which covers salary subsidy from June to August. The application window closes on June 15.

About 60,000 employees aged 65 or above, who have voluntarily contributed to the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), will be covered under the plan while around 215,000 self-employed people who have opened MPF accounts by March 31 this year, will each receive a one-off subsidy of HK$7,500, Lam said. 

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Under the expanded plan, employers will be eligible to claim wage subsidy for certain types of employees in the catering and construction sectors, including engineers and chefs, Lam said. It is estimated that 12,000 employees and 5,000 employers in the two sectors will benefit from the scheme. 

Employers can claim subsidy for wages paid between Dec 2019 and March 2020 with the timeline now extended.

Lam said the application process is straightforward. Applicants will be required only to submit their application forms online. The administrative cost will be borne by the government and applicants won’t be charged any fee, Lam said. 

However, employers are required to provide an undertaking not to lay off workers while accepting the grant, and to spend subsidies received entirely toward paying wages to their employees. 

Any employer found to have broken the pledge will have to return the subsidy and face a fine.

Also on Tuesday, as part of an initiative by Hong Kong Coalition, a newly founded alliance, 200 companies cutting across sectors vowed to avoid layoffs in order to help the city defeat multiple challenges.

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Lam said she extended her full support to the alliance’s efforts to give Hong Kong a new start by saving jobs, reviving the economy and improving people’s livelihood. 

Lam said she had talked to its two co-conveners, Tung Chee-hwa and Leung Chun-ying, vice-chairmen of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, to seek their help in persuading property developers, some of them members of the alliance, to give a break to retail tenants of commercial properties in these difficult times.