Introducing standard working hours might mean low-paid workers are no longer able to work longer hours to fatten their pay packets, the head of the city's biggest Chinese fast-food chain says.
Cafe de Coral chairman Michael Chan Yue-kwong said such workers would rather work an extra hour if they were allowed to.
'Hong Kong people have a reputation of being hard-working. If the standard working hours limit their working hours to eight, it may go against the will of those who want to work longer,' Chan said.
Chan - a former member of the Provisional Minimum Wage Commission set up to recommend a minimum wage - was weighing into the debate on standard hours little more than six months after his company faced a boycott for cancelling paid meal breaks just before last year's announcement of the HK$28-an-hour wage floor.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen asked the labour minister to study the pros and cons of standard working hours after unionists complained that most employees work too many hours. Various studies have shown that a large proportion work 50 hours a week or more.
Chan did admit that standard working hours had merits, including improving people's way of life.