A civil service union argues the move also breached global labour codes
The Hong Kong government breached international labour conventions when it pushed through legislation to slash pay for civil servants instead of negotiating new terms in their employment contracts, a judge was told yesterday.
P.Y. Lo, counsel for the Government Park and Playground Keepers' Union, made the claim during a hearing of the union's challenge to the controversial Public Pay Adjustment Ordinance, which took effect on July 19 last year.
The union is seeking a declaration that the pay-cut ordinance not only broke the employment contracts of Hong Kong's 160,000 civil servants, but was also in breach of the Basic Law, which states that pay and other conditions of conditions of service should remain unchanged after the 1997 handover. The court's ruling is expected to affect similar claims by other unions, including those representing 25,000 police officers.
The government's decision to cut the pay of civil servants by between 1.58 and 4.42 per cent last July led to a street protest by thousands of civil servants.
Mr Lo told Mr Justice Michael Hartmann, sitting in the Court of First Instance, that provisions of the international labour conventions were protected under Article 39 of the Basic Law.
