Lawmakers agreed yesterday to urge the government to speed up drafting a law amendment to compel employers to include commissions in the calculation of holiday pay.
A motion proposed by legislator Leung Kwok-hung asked the government to submit a draft before the current legislative session ends in July.
But Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Matthew Cheung Kin-chung told the Legco manpower panel the amendment might not be ready until October.
The proposal was made after the Court of Final Appeal dismissed a claim for $200,000 in holiday pay by a Philip Wain fitness centre worker, who said her employer calculated her holiday pay only on her basic salary, excluding commission. The judge decided commissions did not fit the Employers Ordinance definition of a daily wage.
On Monday, labour representatives stormed out of a special meeting of the Labour Advisory Board on the proposed amendment after employer representatives asked for more time to study the proposal affecting 600,000 employees, mostly in the services sector.
Despite this setback, Mr Cheung defended the advisory board as an effective mechanism that provided a platform for employers and workers to discuss their problems.
'The meeting on Monday was an isolated case. The board has always allowed both parties to discuss labour issues and resolve their differences,' he said.