Police Continue to Punish Businesses

Char siu pork ribs on the far right, pork shoulder on far left

Late this afternoon I met up with a restaurateur who insisted that I try his latest creation -- char siu pork ribs for an early dinner before his eatery closes at 6pm.

And they are delicious -- why hasn't anyone else thought of this before? Why just use the pork shoulder to make char siu when the ribs are just as good?

We asked him if he was excited to finally have dinner service back on April 21, but he shook his head.

Police in casual clothes out to fine people in TST

Then he told us that he was upset to find that his two restaurants (next door to each other) were recently fined when the police descended on them and checked everyone's LeaveHomeSafe app to see if they had scanned the restaurants' QR codes.

It turns out one diner did not scan the LeaveHomeSafe app, and both restaurants -- which are under one license -- are banned from operating for the next two weeks.

Now he has lost the opportunity to not only make money back from months of just serving lunch, and what is he going to do with kitchen and wait staff having nothing to do for two weeks. 

So please -- everyone -- scan your LeaveHomeSafe app in restaurants and other establishments if you want to support these businesses! A fine is a minor financial hit compared to being banned from running a business for two weeks.

In addition, anyone who has been out of work for 30 days can apply for HK$10,000 compensation from the government, but since hairdressers were out of work for 28 days, they are not eligible for this money. 

So basically the government looks like it is helping people, but when looking at the fine print, it really doesn't.

Use your LHS app when supporting a business!

The same goes for the police raking in some HK$90 million from fines, some from jumping in the bushes to ambush runners on trails who aren't wearing masks, to making domestic helpers pay HK$5,000 -- more than their monthly salary -- for being in what may look like groups of more than two.

There is talk that the sixth wave could come in a few months -- how much more financial punishment can people take?

While the restaurateur I saw today has accepted the financial hit of the punishment, he found out he is not the only one who was caught with not every guest scanning the LeaveHomeSafe app. 

After over two years of being hit hard by the pandemic, how are businesses in Hong Kong supposed to get back on their feet again when they are constantly being knocked down?