Periscope

Street promoters face company scrutiny, arrest

(continued from the previous page...)

A spokesman for Hong Kong Broadband said the company used such a system to trace their promoters to ensure they were working in a particular spot during their working hours.

Street salespeople also have to bear the legal responsibilities of being arrested for obstruction charges.

Hawker control officers of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will warn street promoters and order them to clear their promotion materials during inspections. If promoters ignore the verbal warnings and cause an obstruction, the officers can confiscate their materials and even prosecute them.

Yet, some promoters whom Varsity spoke to said they had been told by their supervisors that they could not get any help from the companies, no matter if they were fined or arrested. The companies will only be responsible for sending promotion materials to the sales representatives when the stocks they have are confiscated. Street promoters have to find their own ways to escape from being arrested and prosecuted.

Ah Keung, who has been a street promoter for the past three summer vacations, observed that there had been more prosecutions against street salespeople this year.

He said he was nearly arrested when doing promotion near the Tai Po train
station in July. The 23-year-old promoter said on that day, he ignored repeated
warnings from hawker control officers not to set up his promotion stall there.

An officer censured Ah Keung for obstructing the street and asked for his identity card to lay a charge against him.

But Ah Keung argued that he was just a student and doing a summer job. “If you fine me $1,500, then I will get no money for the whole week’s work,” Ah Keung recalled what he told the officer.

The officer agreed to give him a “last chance” and told him to stop promoting there. On the following day, Ah Keung was found selling the internet service there again. The same hawker control officer wanted to arrest him. But then the student promoter begged the officer, saying his supervisor told him to promote there.

[previous page] [next page]

A promoter starts packing up his stall when a hawker control team arrives.