'The government promised to carry out a mid-term review of the movement in October this year, and based on the review results, the government will legislate if the movement is proved to be a failure,' unionist Chan Yuen-han told the Legislative Council's manpower panel yesterday.

'But according to the government paper discussed today, nothing is mentioned about the mid-term review. It only says there will be a final review in October 2008. The mid-term review must be done, as we cannot wait another year.'

In October's policy address, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen delayed legislating on a minimum wage by offering the 'wage-protection movement' to encourage employers to pay cleaners and security guards no less than the average market rate.

Proposed by Ms Chan, yesterday's motion called on the government to carry out the mid-term review to see if the voluntary scheme had failed and to submit a bill on the wage-protection law and complete legislation in the 2007-08 legislative session.

Unionist legislator Lee Cheuk-yan said. 'Only a few companies have taken part in the wage-protection campaign, which covered a limited number of workers. Legislation is the solution to help our workers.

'If the government does not start working on the law-drafting procedures and prepare for the legislation this year, how much longer do we have to wait?'

But Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Matthew Cheung Kin-chung defended the wage-protection scheme and said it was too early to comment on its effectiveness. Some 874 companies from different industries had joined the scheme, which had only been running for four months, and it was not fair and too early to say if this was a success or a failure, he said.

He said that if the scheme failed, the government would start preparatory work for a statutory minimum wage for cleaners and security guards before the final review was completed in October 2008.

Mr Cheung also said the government was collecting data from the companies that had taken part in the scheme, such as how many workers they hired, and this information would be made public next month.

But Mr Lee said: 'We do not have to wait until the mid-term review to see if the movement is a failure, as we know it is not working at all now. This is the time to introduce the law and we cannot wait until October 2008 for the final review. By then, there will be another new group of legislators and more time will be wasted on discussions.

'We must push for the legislation to be finished when we are still legislators.'