About 80 restaurant workers at the Ocean Palace Restaurant and Nightclub marched in protest to the Tsim Sha Tsui restaurant during dinner last night after managers refused to pay severance packages to their 230 workers.
The march began after the off-duty workers met labour officials and the restaurant's administration manager, Ng Chi-sing.
The workers set out from the Star Ferry pier at 6pm after the meeting failed to get a positive response from the employer. The workers carried a large green banner and chanted slogans calling for immediate payment.
The general secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions, legislator Lee Cheuk-yan, had a showdown with Sunny Cheung Wing-sun, deputy general manager of Ocean Palace, and managing director Chiu Chi-fai before walking into a closed meeting last night.
Restaurant executives have told workers the 29-year-old restaurant and nightclub will close on Sunday night and that they will receive their salary three days later. But they said the workers would have to go to the insolvency fund for their severance pay.
'We have estimated there is not enough money left for severances,' Mr Cheung said. 'I think I've done what I was supposed to ... I have a clear conscience.'