Karaoke bar workers are flooding government offices with petitions against planned fire laws they say could put them out of work.
Up to 5,000 staff from 59 karaoke clubs have written to the Education and Manpower Bureau, Security Bureau, Buildings Department and Urban Council.
Planned safety laws devised after the arson attack at the Top One karaoke bar in Tsim Sha Tsui that killed 17 people in January last year could put some bars out of business, it is claimed.
Workers' representative Dicky Ng Ka-keung, a manager for the California Red karaoke chain, said 6,000 letters were sent to the Buildings Department and the Urban Council yesterday while another 8,000 would be handed to the two bureaus.
'Major karaoke operators such as Top One, Golden Harvest and ours have indicated that they will have to stop operations if the new requirements are pushed through,' Mr Ng said.
'Even if some agree to invest in renovating the karaoke bars, it will at least take six months for restructuring work and licence-issuing procedures.
