Editorial | Imported staff have role in care of elderly
- As long as the right balance is struck with local workers and there are safeguards against abuse, the government move can help ease labour shortages at homes
Imported workers may soon have a bigger role helping to ease an acute manpower shortage in Hong Kong’s care homes for the elderly. All homes, including those subsidised by the government, will be able to apply to bring in non-local staff under a scheme approved by the Executive Council last week.
The policy aims to also cut application processing times by about 60 per cent. Currently, only private organisations may hire imported workers through a process that takes around five months.
The new procedures may be in place by as early as the middle of next year, and the government deserves credit for taking action on an issue that was of concern well before the start of the pandemic, which only deepened the sector’s labour shortage.
While care home operators have warmly welcomed the fast track scheme, unionists have been far less enthusiastic, arguing that increasing salaries to attract more local people is the right answer.
About 15,700 carers now work in some 1,100 local residential homes for the aged or the disabled. About 4,000 are imported workers, mostly from the mainland and many have Cantonese language skills needed to serve the city’s elderly.
The Labour and Welfare Bureau said there was a staff shortfall of about 1,600 in the sector as of last year, and 4,500 more carers are needed by 2025-26 to cope with demand and staffing requirements under proposed laws to upgrade services.
As we have argued before, genuine recruitment difficulties leave few options other than bringing in outside talent. If a well-considered mechanism protects the interests of local workers and guards against abuses of staff, there should be no reason not to open the door wider.
