Chinese medicine workers prepare to break rice bowls outside the Legco building yesterday, to symbolise the threat to their livelihoods implied by their exclusion from a bill allowing registered Chinese medicine practitioners to issue sick leave certificates. The bill passed its third reading. Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan said registration of herbalists would aid public confidence. Now, only western medicine doctors can issue such certificates. Legislator Leung Yiu-chung said the bill would further undermine the livelihood of 'listed Chinese medicine practitioners'.