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Fok Mei-sung has been a street cleaner for 12 years. But when she applied for her first sick leave she had few rights as her contracts had always been short-term. Photo: Felix Wong

Hong Kong's street cleaners being deprived of basic employment benefits

Hong Kong's army of poorly paid street sweepers are being deprived of basic employment benefits by the government's policy of outsourcing its cleaning services.

Jennifer Ngo

Hong Kong's army of poorly paid street sweepers are being deprived of basic employment benefits by the government's policy of outsourcing its cleaning services.

Close to 75 per cent of the city's street cleaning is carried out by five private contractors who win their tenders via a public bidding process every two years.

That means that every two years most of their staff contracts come to an end, and while the street sweepers' work continues uninterrupted, they find themselves new employees under another two-year contract - missing out on sick leave, paid leave and Mandatory Provident Fund rights which all accrue with length of service.

The street sweepers make up the bulk of the 9,700 people employed to clean the streets, and 7,200 of them work under subcontracted companies, according to a spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.

Fok Mei-sung has been clearing rubbish from the same streets of Sham Shui Po for 12 years. She has worked with the same boss and done the same job every day, although sometimes under a different company name.

The 64-year-old started her latest contract in April, which meant that when she developed knee problems in June, she had technically only worked for two months and was only given four days' sick leave.

"I've been sweeping streets for years and I've never taken a single day's sick leave before. And this time I needed it - I have the doctor's certificate too - they wouldn't give it to me," said Fok.

According to labour laws, an employee is entitled to seven days of annual leave for the first two years of employment, with a day added for each year of service after that.

Fok has never had eight days of annual leave, because her contracts have never lasted more than two years. For over a decade, she has woken at 5am to start work, cleaning Fuk Wing Street, Fuk Wa Street and Apliu Street. And still she receives no long-term employee benefits.

The mother-of-three earns HK$7,500 a month, working 81/2 hours a day, six days a week. She spends hours on the streets pushing a two-metre-long cart, cleaning and sorting rubbish. "It's hard work of course, but I've got used to it after so many years," she said, wielding a long bamboo broom, her blue uniform damp with sweat.

To supplement her income, she would collect cardboard at night, but her bad back and knees have made that impossible.

"Any street sweeper could be in [Fok's] situation if they are unlucky," said Ng Wai-tung of the Society for Community Organisation, who said little can be done legally.

"But this illustrates how this government subcontracting system is cheating these lowest-level labourers out of their labour protection," said Ng. "They have new contracts under what is sometimes a new subcontractor every two years, but ultimately their employer is the government. It's the government who is exploiting these labourers."

He called for the law to be changed to better protect workers and for the government to review its subcontracting policies.

A spokesman for the department declined to explain why the street sweeping contracts were outsourced, saying only that the policy was designed to ensure the best use of public money.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Cleaners cheated out of benefits
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