Employees vow to continue stoppages until company increases their wages
Two hundred Vitasoy transport workers rejected what they saw as their employer's piecemeal solution yesterday after striking for 13 hours, and vowed to strike again today.
'We are very dissatisfied. They were on strike for an entire day, and still we could not come to an agreement,' said Tam Chun-yin, co-ordinating organiser of the Confederation of Trade Unions.
'We'll come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, until we get a satisfactory answer,' added Transport and Logistics Workers' Union president Tam Wai-to.
The salesmen, drivers and delivery assistants, representing about 80 per cent of the company's transport workers, gathered at its Tuen Mun headquarters at 7am.
They demanded that Vitasoy increase their base salaries and commissions combined by 6 per cent; rehire a driver they claim was wrongly fired; improve communication between management and workers; ensure workers do not work overtime; and adhere to employment contracts.
They claim that although the company raised base salaries by 2.5 per cent last year, it has not raised commissions since 2003, meaning they make less overall today than 10 years ago, and that they work up to five hours overtime a day to fulfil tasks outside their contracts.