Unionists challenge policy

By Katherine Choi, Pearl Lee and Caroline Wong

Under the existing Employment Ordinance, the rights of both local and imported workers are protected in the following ways:

Working hours Eight hours of work a day; holidays as agreed in the contract, and time off in extremely bad weather conditions.

Salary
A standard salary to be paid through auto-payment to block unreasonable deductions. Boarding fees should not take up more than 25 percent of salary.

Living conditions
Workers should each have a place of 3.4 square metres minimum.

Dismissal
Employers required to give a 7-day notice for discharge and 14 days for dismissed workers to take leave.

If there is more than one contract signed between imported workers, employers or employment agencies, the case is not subject to trial under local laws.

Enforcement
Inspectors are sent to construction sites to tell imported labours about their rights. The inspectors file complaints through a hot-line.

However, inspectors are sent to work sites only on irregular basis. According to Mr. Yip Wai Ming, senior secretary of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, the number of inspectors is not adequate. Many workers are working in jobs which they were not imported for.

Some workers, facing the risk of dismissal and being sent back to China, dare not report to the Labour Department even when their rights are infringed. Some say their families are being threatened as well.

Some workers are willing to work for less money than is stated in their contracts, as the amount is still more than what they can earn at home.

In fact, workers have little say in signing contracts. For example, some Thai workers signed contracts in their native country for only half the salaries stated in their contracts in Hong Kong.

If they are dismissed, they cannot even earn what they have paid to the employment agencies when they got the job in Hong Kong.

Employers may pay workers the standard salaries according to the laws. But the trick is that they can make the workers pay back a part of the money in the form of cash after they have transferred the salaries into the workers’ bank accounts.

The workers work for long hours, some up to 16 hours a day. Sunday does not make any difference to them, and they have to work under bad weather conditions.

Not only do they have harsh working hours, but some are also congested in an area of 500 square feet where 50 people are living. Some have to sleep on the floor; some even have to stay in the work sheds.

Through a series of workers’ movements, more and more workers are standing up to fight for their rights. However, problems remained unresolved. Mr. Yip claimed that the government is obliged to solve these.

February 1996