Minimum wage should not cover returning students, legislators say
Lawmakers yesterday urged the government to exempt university students studying overseas from the statutory minimum wage when they take up training opportunities in Hong Kong.
Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung, who represents one of the two commercial functional constituencies, said employers would be less willing to offer training opportunities to youngsters covered by the minimum wage law.
'Employers are now willing to teach them for free, and learning opportunities are precious,' Lam said in a Legislative Council bills committee meeting. 'It is a great loss for young people if they cannot gain work experience just because they are covered by the law.'
Ip Kwok-him from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong agreed.
'Some of my friends' children studying overseas want to make full use of their holidays by finding jobs at companies in Hong Kong to learn something related to their studies,' he said. 'They can spend time with their families during holidays and gain work experience at the same time.
'If they are protected by the law, then employers will have to pay them, while most are in fact working for free now. That will make it difficult for them to find training opportunities,' Ip said.
Deputy Commissioner for Labour Alan Wong Kwok-lun said only exempted students at local tertiary institutions who were required to complete internship programmes in order to graduate were exempted from the law in the proposed bill.
'The internship programmes must be closely related to their studies and required by their schools,' he said. 'But this only applies to students of local tertiary institutes. It is very difficult to find out the content of programmes offered by overseas universities and confirm whether students studying there are taking up intern programmes in Hong Kong closely related with their studies.'
He said very few overseas university students were required to take up internship programmes in Hong Kong in order to graduate.
'We also want to make sure employers will not exploit students,' he said. 'If students are doing summer jobs, then they should be protected by the law. If students are taking up jobs to make money, they should also be protected by the law.'
Unionist legislator Lee Cheuk-yan said students on work experience could be treated as volunteers.
'Volunteers don't get paid for their work,' he said. 'Employers will be happy and students can also have training opportunities. This is the easiest way to do it.
'We really don't want to see students working for money being exploited if they are not covered by the law.'
