Q Should working hours be controlled by legislation?
The Census and Statistics Department's survey of 11,000 households from July to September last year on working hours ('Nearly half of workers do 8-hour days', December 24) needs more information to give a more complete picture, even though the sample taken was statistically representative of Hong Kong. Were the hours from every single day a person worked included? How many working days a week? Were half-days on Saturdays used to average out with the rest?
The general practice in Hong Kong is that people put in half a day of work every Saturday or every second Saturday. It is a practice long abandoned in many countries.
I have observed on those Saturdays that while a few workers may be swamped by a workload like any other day, most just slack off doing personal tasks. Such a practice is unproductive work and wasteful of the time used commuting to work.
Even if the survey figure is based on a five-day working week, it still shows that more than half the people work more than eight hours each day.
John Yuan, School of Architecture and Fine Arts, Dalian University of Technology