Foreign labour needed in Hong Kong to keep wages down: industry
Business chief says more overseas labour is required for low-skilled jobs like dish washing
The new chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries says the government should consider opening certain job sectors to foreign labour because a persistent labour shortage risks driving up wages and prices.
Stanley Lau Chin-ho, who succeeded Roy Chung Chi-ping as federation chairman yesterday, said sectors in need of imported labour included dish washing, construction work and day care for the elderly.
Lau's comment came a day after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said that Hong Kong's workforce would begin to shrink in 2018.
Lau, also a non-official member of the Economic Development Commission that was set up by the chief executive to discuss economic issues, said the business sector generally agreed with the push to import more labour.
"Nowadays, you can pay HK$40 an hour and you still cannot find a dishwasher," he said. "Of course, the union would say pay HK$50 or HK$60 then, but when that happens the restaurant would probably charge HK$80 for a bun."
Labour shortages were not just confined to low-skilled jobs, he said, with the medical sector also complaining of a lack of nurses and doctors. On another contentious issue, the setting of standard work hours, the largest local representative of manufacturers said no law should be passed to establish a benchmark unless the labour shortage problem eased.