Labour Day to be a holiday 'after 1998'

Post-handover executive councillor Tam Yiu-chung said he was confident Labour Day would be a statutory holiday after 1998.

Mr Tam, vice-chairman of the pro-China Federation of Trade Unions, was speaking yesterday at a rally marking Labour Day on Thursday.

'The Special Administrative Region government certainly has to study the labour sector's demand for Labour Day to be made a holiday with pay.

'We might not be able to achieve this in 1998 - but I am confident that we can achieve it after 1998,' he said.

Meanwhile, unionist legislator Lau Chin-shek has pledged to go ahead with his private member's bill in support of a May 1 holiday before the Legislative Council's last sitting this June.

Mr Lau's bill was tabled this month, but the Government argued it could create confusion if a holiday decision was made at short notice.