My TakeThis is one race that labour chief Matthew Cheung has lost

Last-ditch effort to tackle the issues that matter to workers is too little, too late; it would be better to hand the files over to the next administration

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Despite being the labour and welfare chief since 2007, Matthew Cheung has yet to resolve the three biggest issues in his field. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 1:07am, 4 Jan 2017Updated: 1:07am, 4 Jan 2017

Tackling retirement protection, the controversial employers’ offset mechanism for the Mandatory Provident Fund and standard working hours are a “race against time” and are like “walking on thin ice”, Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, the labour and welfare chief, says.

Clearly, resolving even one of these issues has been a huge challenge for Cheung.

Yet this sunset government is committed to resolving all three in the next six months. We feel your pain, Mr Cheung. It’s your boss, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, who is trying to push through these issues, even at the risk of arriving at resolutions that are less than desirable.

But Cheung wasn’t parachuted into his job just now; he’s been at his post since 2007. Leung promised to address such labour issues from the start of his term almost five years ago. Study panels and government-appointed groups were set up to look into them from every angle. So whose fault is it that these issues have been left to the last minute?

Leung and Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor have the excuse of having to focus on the failed political reform package for universal suffrage. Cheung has had no such distraction. Where has he been in the last five years? All three issues fall squarely within his portfolio.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Last-ditch effort to tackle the issues that matter to workers is too little, too late; it would be better to hand the files over to the next administration

Last-ditch effort to tackle the issues that matter to workers is too little, too late; it would be better to hand the files over to the next administration