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Martin Wong

Toh Han Shih

Hong Kong may be on the verge of importing labour for the first time in more than a decade  to bolster the ageing construction workforce, industry figures believe. They point to a string of multibillion-dollar projects  about to take off.
 The possibility emerged yesterday as the government outlined a package of measures aimed at attracting new blood to the industry with subsidies and higher pay.  A government minister did not rule out importing labour if they did not succeed.
Presenting the measures, Secretary for Development Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor acknowledged the government faced an uphill battle to attract young workers to the industry.
'More than a third of the workers are over 50 whilst only six per cent are under 25,' she said.
The minister said there was no immediate need to consider importing labour but the situation might change. 'We are spending so much money on these infrastructure projects  we do not want to see one day that we need to import  labour.' 
Lam said that,  as a politically accountable official, she knew the issue was  highly contentious.  'I really hope ... we do not have to contemplate [it] at all,' she said.
When Hong Kong imported foreign labour for a number of industries, including garment factories, hotels and construction in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was hotly contested even though the overall unemployment rate was below  2 per cent at the time. It is now 4.9 per cent.
The construction workers' union said  importing labour  was not an option. 'There is no room for any negotiation on that issue at all. We are totally against it,' the president of the Construction Industry Employees General Union, Chow Luen-kiu, said.
But a member of the Hong Kong Construction Association who did not want to be named said even though the sector did not want to import labour it might be forced to do so to build the government's 10 planned infrastructure projects, including the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau  Bridge, the cross-border express railway and the Kai Tak cruise terminal.
'We really find difficulty in attracting new people to  the trade. And we will face furious competition on labour if projects in Macau resume,' the member said, referring to big casino and resort works that were stalled by the financial crisis, leadding to thousands of lay-offs.
Key industry players agreed.
Colin Jesse, Hong Kong and China managing director of infrastructure consultancy Evans & Peck, said that if the 10 infrastructure projects went ahead as planned, 'it is going to lead to a requirement for foreign labour'.
'The average age of a carpenter in Hong Kong is 55,'  Jesse said. 'There has been little or no new blood in the industry in the past 15 years.  When this incredible new demand starts, there is simply not going to be sufficient experienced human resources available.'
'Every construction company in Hong Kong will face a shortage of labour in bidding for the 10 major infrastructure projects. There is a problem in getting skilled labour for them,'  said Yam Kong, general manager of HCCG China Holdings, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Hsin Chong Construction Group.
In the next financial year alone, the government has set aside nearly HK$50 billion for projects it says will employ 62,500 people.  
Lam said the shortage might not be an overall one but perhaps a shortage of skills in certain areas and the government was trying to fill that gap.
'What we are now doing is trying to anticipate that, as a result of a surge in public works as well as private sector projects,  there may be a shortfall,' she said.
In Wednesday's budget,  HK$100 million was earmarked to support  Construction Industry Council  incentives to attract young people to  the industry and to improve the practices of the trade.
At present, trainees taking the council's short courses  are entitled to a daily training allowance of HK$90, equivalent to about HK$2,000 a month, during their 12 to 13 weeks of training. 'We will increase the training allowance to an average of HK$5,000 per month,' Mak Chai-kwong, permanent secretary for development,  said yesterday.
Details have yet to be confirmed but Mak said the allowance would be given over three years  to 3,000 trainees in  occupations where recruitment was difficult, including bar-benders and fixers, shot firers, plumbers and metal workers. 
The government would  encourage employers to hire graduates from the trainee programme and pay them a starting salary of at least  HK$8,000 per month, rising to  at least HK$10,000 after six months, he said.
Conrad Wong Tin-cheung, president of the Hong Kong Construction Association, said employers  supported the incentives.
'We really face a problem attracting new blood,' he said.
Hard-hat zone
Construction worker age distribution
Under 20: 1%
20-29: 12%
30-39: 21%
40-49: 30%
50-59: 29%
60 and above: 7%
SOURCE: CENSUS AND STATISTICS DEPARTMENT, CONSTRUCTION WORKERS' REGULATION AUTHORITY



Labour imports for projects on the cards