More than 120 imported construction workers have complained that agents have been cheating them out of wages or imposing extra charges, while some have allegedly been fired for complaining, a Hong Kong labour union has said.

Some of the non-local workers were scared and desperate, according to members of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union who spoke at a press conference on Wednesday. None of the workers involved appeared and the union said they had been threatened by agents, with some of fired after reporting the issue to agents or main contractors…

Hong Kong sought to tackle a widespread labour crunch last year by significantly increasing the quota of non-local labour for certain industries, and expanding the labour sectors allowed to recruit outside the city…

According to the union, dozens of workers employed to work on the airport’s third runway reported that once they received their monthly wages the agent required them to hand over their ATM cards and subtracted half the amount…

… 20 workers told the union they had been charged extra training fees and required to work two extra unpaid days every month…

Some other workers complained they had to buy work tools and pay transportation fees, the union said, adding that workers had been fired after filing complaints…