A TASKFORCE should be set up to investigate the extent of Hong Kong's unemployment, legislator Elsie Tu said.
She said Financial Secretary Sir Hamish Macleod had promised to consider her proposal.
Mrs Tu said the Government was ignorant of the fact that many retrained local workers could not find jobs because employers opted for cheaper alternatives in the form of imported labour.
'The Government is unaware of the unemployment situation and unconcerned that those in their 30s and 40s are denied the right to work,' she said.
Such a taskforce could establish why healthy and capable workers were rejected as being too old, she said.
Right-wing labour representative Pang Chun-hoi demanded the Government stop importing foreign workers, a practice which soured relations between employers and employees. Many local workers were not getting a fair deal, he said.
