Call it paranoia or alarmist unionism, but when your job is on the line, you may be forgiven for seeing danger signs everywhere. The threat, after all, is real enough.
This year the Macau Government has launched an aggressive drive to attract SAR services companies to relocate to the enclave; and paging companies, for one, have moved en masse. Will the trend spill over to other service sectors? The government there wants it to happen and SAR unions are afraid it just might, especially with next year's handover that is bound to create closer economic ties and improved law and order.
Paging operators have been bearing the main cost of the recent relocation, and more are about to lose their jobs, according to Hong Kong Communication Industry Employees Association spokesman, Fan Kwok-fai.
More than 1,000 paging jobs face the axe in the coming months, he claims, because at least three major paging companies are planning for further relocation. All three he named have denied any such plan. 'Labour laws there are loose and the importation of mainland workers is unrestricted,' Mr Fan says. 'Macau and mainland workers are paid half to 20 per cent of their counterparts in Hong Kong. All these conditions make it pretty hard for bosses to resist.
'But the Macau Government's move to attract Hong Kong businesses does not necessarily benefit local workers there because mainlanders are preferred for their even lower wages.' Since October last year, more than 1,880 jobs from 10 paging companies have been lost. Of these, more than half stemmed from relocation to Macau. Hutchison Telecom, Star Paging, ABC Communications and Hong Kong Paging are now operating the bulk of their services in the enclave.
Labour leader and Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong law-maker Chan Yuen-han fears that other services companies outside the paging industry will follow suit.