Two School of Motoring instructors blame union work for poor appraisals

Two driving instructors at the Hong Kong School of Motoring suspect their unionising work led to their poor work appraisals and cost them half their "lucky" lai see money, they said yesterday.

Yip Yuk-lun and Yiu Chin-wing, who helped form the union in Sha Tin district, said they were among 22 instructors who got the lowest grade - D - in their annual performance reports in December.

Recently they received only HK$5,000 in lai see money for the Lunar New Year, they told a press conference yesterday, detailing how the company tried to stop their bids to set up the union.

Yiu said the company handed out a questionnaire to employees asking if they supported the trade union and who had told them about it. The union was formed on January 30.

Instructor Li Kwong-yiu said: "Two days before our [unionrelated] petition to Legco on December 21, Tsui Ka-chi, operations principal of the school in Sha Tin … told me that if I stood behind my colleagues [in the petition], I would be considered as supporting the action. The school would definitely do something." Yuen Long district councillor Zachary Wong Wai-yin said: "It's really like white terror for those working in the motoring school - setting up a union has to be done in secret."

Meanwhile, sacked driving instructor Ho Tak-ming has filed a writ against the school for unreasonable dismissal.