Hong Kong lawmaker compares sacking of principal who screamed at Singapore guards to a ‘death sentence’

HONG KONG: The principal of a secondary school, who was fired after a video of him screaming at security guards in Singapore was widely shared, said he would be seeking legal advice regarding his employment contract rights. While Lee Cheuk-hing had handed in a resignation letter after the incident went viral, the management of San Wui Commercial Society Secondary School in Tuen Mun rejected it and fired him, effective June 3, without benefits.

However, since then, a labour lawmaker has gone on record, saying that the principal’s firing may be very hard for the school to defend.

Labour lawmaker Chau Siu-chung was quoted in a June 9 South China Morning Post report as saying, “Summary dismissal is regarded as capital punishment in the labour sector. The threshold for invoking this clause is very high, as employees enjoy no benefits once they are summarily dismissed.”

Mr Chau noted that the courts have required strong evidence in the past to justify such dismissals, and that the former principal had said that he had been trying to protect his students.

“The video footage does not show that they found his behaviour offensive,” he added.

Meanwhile, Tang Fei, a lawmaker from the education sector who is also a former secondary school principal, noted that Lee may have sought legal advice when he felt his rights were not fully protected.

He added, “I think the incident may impact his provident fund, but I do not know how big it will be, as it all depends on the Education Bureau’s decision.”

The shouting incident

At an undisclosed location in Jurong on May 22, Mr Lee got into an argument with two female security guards over a parking issue. When the guards reportedly asked that the vehicle he and his students were using be moved, the former school head grew angry, yelling at and even taunting the guards, despite efforts from at least three onlookers to get him to calm down.

The school issued a public apology for the incident, and its manager said that Mr Lee had been suspended as his conduct during the incident did not meet public expectations. On Friday (May 29), Mr Lee resigned from his position and issued a tearful apology via video. 

The school, however, issued a statement on Wednesday (June 3) saying that the former principal’s “vulgar” behaviour is against the school’s code of conduct for its educators, particularly the guidelines that had been stipulated by the Education Bureau, CNA reported.

“This constitutes the immediate dismissal of Mr Lee and the removal of all his duties at the school,” the statement from the school’s management committee read. /TISG

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