Rejection of law on job quotas for disabled angers lawmakers

The government has no plan to set up a legally binding quota for the hiring of disabled people - a refusal that has outraged legislators and support groups who say the administration's stance is 'pathetic'.

'It means that if Hong Kong has people like Stephen Hawking, they will be buried as there are few employment chances,' lawmaker Albert Chan Wai-yip said.

He was speaking just two weeks after the renowned and profoundly disabled scientist was feted during a visit to Hong Kong that included a reception at Government House by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen.

Responding to repeated requests by legislators at a joint meeting of the Legislative Council's manpower and welfare services panels, Commissioner for Rehabilitation Mary Ma Lo To-wan said there were no plans to set a quota. She said it would deal a blow to Hong Kong's numerous small and medium enterprises.

But legislator Lee Cheuk-yan, of the Confederation of Trade Unions, argued that a quota could be introduced just for big companies and organisations.

Disabled people and support groups attending the meeting expressed their disappointment.

'When I asked the principal of a deaf school about employment for their students, the principal looked very shocked,' said Chow Ping-kuen, a member of the Alliance on Employment Quota System of Persons with Disabilities. 'He hadn't even thought that there would be jobs for them when they graduated. How would the students feel?'