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Martin Wong

At least 300 PCCW contract staff will take a 2 per cent pay cut - but retain their jobs -  after contractors were forced to accept a 5 per cent discount on their services to the telecommunications giant.
Unionists hope the pay cut will set an example to PCCW and other companies that large layoffs can be avoided and compromises reached between workers and employers during financial difficulties.
Gordon Tsui Sai-cheung,  deputy director of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions' rights and benefits committee, said PCCW had decided to cut its budget to its 50 contractors by 5 per cent.
'Five per cent is already an improvement, as originally it had decided to slash the budget by 10 per cent,' he said.
About 300 contract staff staged a half-day strike on Tuesday in protest at the proposed 10 per cent cut.
Fearing that the budget cut would lead to thousands of contract staff losing their jobs, the union sat down with eight contractors yesterday.
Mr Tsui said: 'Now that the eight contractors and the workers they employ have agreed to a 2 per cent pay cut, we hope that it can be an example to the other contractors, PCCW and other companies to resolve financial problems.'
The union said the contractors employed 600 workers but only half of them would have their pay cut as those earning less than HK$6,000 a month would be spared.
One of the eight contractors, surnamed Lee, said: 'We have some workers who receive less than HK$6,000 a month. We hope they will not be affected. We do not want to see our workers getting less than the dole.'
He said he had been forced to cut wages because PCCW asked contractors to accept a 5 per cent discount for all projects starting from next month.
'It is a very difficult time for us. We don't want to put the burden on workers but we are forced to.'
Workers who took part in the meeting said they accepted the pay cut reluctantly. One man who gave his name as Chan said: 'As workers, we of course want zero pay cuts, but then the current economy is really difficult. We think we should all make some concessions.'
While contract staff now had job security, Mr Tsui said he was worried about the 17,000 workers directly employed by PCCW.
'Though there were no layoffs yesterday we heard that about a dozen people were sacked earlier this week and there is plan for a 10 per cent wage reduction,' he said. 'We will meet PCCW workers next week to see what we do next.'
A PCCW spokesman would not comment on its agreement with contractors yesterday. The company did not have an across-the-board layoff programme but  saw a need to adjust working hours or reduce numbers at certain units.



2pc pay cut but workers keep jobs with PCCW