Former and current employees of Christian Zheng Sheng College, a school for rehabilitating drug addicts, have sought help from Hong Kong’s court for labour disputes to help them claim unpaid wages amid police allegations of fraud against directors of the charity that operates the institution.
Dennis Yeung King-yin, one of six people who submitted documents to the Labour Tribunal in Jordan on Wednesday, said he hoped the school and its parent organisation, Christian Zheng Sheng Association, could resolve the dispute over unpaid salaries “as soon as possible”.
“We all want this case to be resolved as soon as possible so we can move on,” Yeung, a former teacher of the college, told the Post. He was among three former staff members and three current ones who sought help from the court that handles labour disputes.
Christian Zheng Sheng College was established at Ha Keng on Lantau Island in 1985 to help teenagers struggling with drug addiction or who were on probation orders.
Both the college and the charity that operates it grabbed media headlines in January when police arrested four former directors of the latter and issued warrants against another three for allegedly stealing HK$50 million (US$6.4 million) in funds meant to support the college’s operations.
The Post earlier reported that the three fugitives – college principal Alman Chan Siu-cheuk, 63, founder Jacob Lam Hay-sing, 69, and Chan Yau-chi, 62 – had left Hong Kong, as communications between the association’s new board of directors and security officials escalated into mutual recriminations in recent weeks.
Yeung, who resigned from the college in early May, said he was owed three months salary since March, as well as “long service payment” for remaining in the school’s employ for 16 years.
He said he understood there were eight to 10 teachers remaining at the college to care for students, but added he was unaware of everyday conditions at the school in the wake of the fraud scandal since he had resigned.
Yeung said he had not been in contact with the fugitives Lam and Chan, but noted that the former had previously sent messages to a group chat that Yeung was in “two to three months ago”.
On June 18, the Security Bureau accused the association’s new board of directors of lying and “harbouring fugitives”. The board had previously claimed it had cut ties with Lam and Chan but the bureau discovered that the pair remained board members of the charity’s subsidiary groups and still controlled its bank accounts.
The new management of the association includes chairman Reverend Simon Lau Man-wo and vice-chairman Reverend Siu Yu-fat, who had previously worked in drug and gambling addiction rehabilitation services respectively.
The college previously said it would cease operations on July 7 after police froze the association’s bank accounts, leading to liquidity issues.
