bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Dennis Eng

Travel agencies that pocket tour guides' tips have agreed to stop the practice immediately amid mounting complaints, although the industry watchdog is powerless to take action against offenders.
Only about four or five agencies are involved so far, but the agreement averted a weeklong strike by the Hong Kong Tour Guides General Union planned for today.
Unionist lawmaker Wong Kwok-hing on Thursday met the Travel Industry Council, which regulates the trade,  to discuss the matter. Mr Wong said he was pleased with the outcome and praised the council for being forthcoming and effective.
'Tour guides are the last people who would want to go on strike because that takes away from their work and earnings,' Mr Wong said. 'But this time, the travel agencies forced their hand.'
Union member Lau Sin-mei said it would be up to individual travel agencies to decide whether affected  guides would be refunded  lost tips.
'This issue with tips is solely between employer and employee,' said Joseph Tung Yao-chung, executive director of the council. 'We are not in a position to interfere. We just expressed the hardship endured by tour guides and persuaded the travel agencies to stop the practice.'
The guides generally receive HK$50 a day in tips from each tour group member  and split this equally with the travel agency.
The union said that over the past month it  received 10 to 20 complaints a day about  agencies forcing tour guides to sign agreements forfeiting all tips.  This mainly affected guides  for tour groups from the mainland.
The guides also receive commission on tour groups' spending on shopping. On jewellery items, the commission is usually up to 40 or 50 per cent of the total amount spent, and up to 10 per cent for electrical items. A tour group could spend as much as HK$20,000 on shopping, but the average is usually between HK$5,000 and HK$6,000.
The council warned travel agencies against cutting commissions and urged them not to delay reimbursing tour guides for any upfront costs, Mr Tung said.
Tour guides usually have to fork out several thousand dollars for each tour group to cover sundry expenses. Some have also told of travel agencies increasingly passing to them the responsibility of paying a driver's fee of HK$300 for a two-day tour, although the council has not received any official complaints.



Travel agencies stop pocketing tour guides' tips to avert strike