100 Nepali security guards sacked amid strike for wage increase
About 100 Nepali security guards have been sacked since a strike began on Monday over more pay and better fringe benefits.
Group 4 Securicor (G4S), the biggest provider of security services in Hong Kong, blamed a reduction in business, saying tens of customers had terminated deals with it in light of the action, which was in its fourth day yesterday.
Ken May, regional managing director of G4S Security Services, said: 'The guarding service is a very competitive and dynamic trade. Customers may put up with having no guards on their doorsteps for a few days, but after that they will move on. It is not like they don't have other choices.'
Li Hoi of the Confederation of Trade Unions, which has been helping the guards, said the sackings were not in line with the company's previous practice upon losing contracts.
'Contracts come and go in this industry and we accepted the strike might indeed cost some temporary jobs. However, a lot of those sacked were full-time permanent guards. They [usually] don't just lose their jobs when a contract is out.'
Mr Li said the usual practice was to transfer these guards to other posts, or the workers would agree to be suspended for a period of time until the firm found them another post.
Prasad Bhim Sunwar, a full-time G4S guard for nine years, said he was shocked when he received his redundancy letter yesterday.
'They never gave me a pay rise and now they fire me for no reason. How will I feed my two children now?'
The strike began on Monday after guards from the Gurkha service team found they were not among a group of 200 that had been given a pay rise.
Kumar Gurung, the group's leader who said he had not had a pay rise in nine years, raised nine demands with the company - including an increase in pay from between HK$10,000 and HK$12,000 to HK$14,000, a one-month bonus, extension of a 14-day no-paid leave policy and giving permanent posts to casual employees aged above 45.
The company claimed to have answered seven of them positively, and that five worker representatives had agreed on Tuesday to accept a HK$300 performance-based monthly incentive instead of a pay rise.
But Mr Gurung said an agreement was never reached.
The Labour Department has set up a hotline for G4S workers but a spokeswoman said no complaints had been received so far. She said it was too early to say if the sackings were illegal but the department would continue to conciliate between the two sides.
According to the Employment Ordinance, any employer who prevents, deters, or penalises his employees for taking part in trade union activities outside their working hours or at a time agreed by their employers is liable to a fine of up to HK$100,000.
