Chan Yuen-han returns to Legco determined to better lives of workers
Chan Yuen-han is 65 and a cancer survivor, but she is back in Legco, fighting to achieve a better life for the working people of Hong Kong
At an age when many people are retiring, the labour rights advocate Chan Yuen-han is preparing to put in long hours in the Legislative Council for the next four years so workers can enjoy a shorter working week. Chan, 65, honorary president of the Federation of Trade Unions lost her Kowloon East seat at the 2008 election, but will return to Legco next month as a "super lawmaker" after winning 246,196 votes to claim one of five seats in the district council functional constituency.
"I will move a motion debate on standard working hours if we [the FTU] get a time slot," she told the South China Morning Post. "People's working hours are getting longer and longer. They are so tied up that they don't know when to get off work every day.
"We will also fight for an increase in the number of statutory holidays, from 12 to 17 a year. The existing practice is so unreasonable that many blue-collar workers are just entitled to the basic 12-day break, while office workers generally enjoy 17 holidays," said Chan, who first entered Legco in 1995.
Standard working hours legislation is the next goal for unionists after their long fight for a minimum wage law finally ended in victory in Legco in 2010. The city's first statutory wage floor, at HK$28 an hour, took effect on May 1 last year.
Despite Chan's firm record of fighting for labour rights, she does have one blemish on her record.
In 1997, she was absent when the Legislative Council voted on a government proposal to scrap a collective bargaining law implemented before the handover.