Thousands of people marched across Kowloon and Hong Kong Island on Labour Day yesterday in protest, ironically, at the new minimum wage law.
The marchers included workers who had been laid off recently due to the introduction of the law, which took effect yesterday.
Others told how their employers had shortened their working week to offset the increase in labour costs.
Lee Cheuk-yan, the labour lawmaker, said complaints about various measures adopted by employers to offset the statutory wage increases had become increasingly common.
'Contracts are changed so that paid rest days and lunch breaks are abolished,' he said. 'Workers lack bargaining power. That's why there should be the right to collective bargaining.'
Waving placards, singing and chanting slogans, protesters called for a range of better working conditions, as well as the right to collective bargaining, paid lunch breaks and rest days, and the yearly review of the minimum wage law. The rising cost of rent and the effect of inflation on food prices were also targeted.