Winsor lifts payout offer
SACKED workers at two Winsor Industrial dyeing factories due to close this month will receive 'several million dollars' more in redundancy money.
Winsor Industrial executive director Lam Woon-bun said the original proposal was reasonable, but the firm had agreed to pay more because it 'realised the plight of the workers'.
Mr Lam said the new offer meant workers would be given about $600 extra for each year they had spent at the factories.
The workers said they were satisfied with the offer, though a Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions spokesman was not.
Yesterday, the second round of negotiations in a week at the Labour Department lasted two hours, and ended an impasse that lasted almost a month.
The workers staged a sit-in at the department's Central offices on Tuesday, demanding talks with Winsor directors.
The two factories, in Tsuen Wan and Kwun Tong, will close on June 30. Some 600 workers were notified last month.
Confederation spokesman Ng Yan-kwong said the workers would 'surely remain out of work' in the current period of high unemployment.
He said the confederation was gathering workers' personal details and would be organising job-finding campaigns for them.
When asked whether Winsor would help workers find employment, Mr Lam said the firm had been in contact with the Vocational Training Council and other dyeing factories.
But he admitted the chance of the workers being employed by other businesses under the Winsor flag was slim.
