Court decided for the first time an appeal against the Construction Industry Council

Eric Kwok S.C. leading Ernest Ng and instructed by Ip, Kwan & Co, acted for KONE Elevator (HK) Limited in the first-ever statutory appeal against a levying decision made by the Construction Industry Council, which is likely to have an industry-wide impact.

The Court ruled on the nature of the appeal and various important procedural aspects of the appeal.  The substantive appeal involved the statutory construction of the meaning of “construction operations”, under the Construction Industrial Council Ordinance (Cap. 587), which would be determinative of whether an operation – in this case, maintenance (and in particular electrical and mechanical) work – would be subject to statutory levy.  It also touches upon the stage of a time-based operation at which the Construction Industry Council may impose a levy on a contractor.

The full judgment is available here.