More than 5,000 hit Hong Kong’s streets on Labour Day to demand standard working hours and universal pension scheme
Unions urge government to implement policies immediately, and accuse Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying of ‘continuously betraying’ workers
More than 5,000 people took to the streets of Hong Kong on Labour Day to demand legislation on standard working hours and a universal pension scheme.
Organisers urged the government to implement the two policies immediately and said they had been promised by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, whose current term in office ends in July next year.
Protesters also demanded abolition of the so-called offsetting system used as part of the Mandatory Provident Fund – Hong Kong’s existing retirement savings scheme – which allows employers to use their portion of contributions to a worker’s retirement fund to offset severance and long-service payments for the employee.
Watch: Thousands of workers rally in Labour Day protest
Overseas domestic helpers also joined the marches, demanding inclusion in the city’s minimum wage system and the choice not to live with their employers.
Two major marches took place on Sunday, organised separately by the Federation of Trade Unions – which said about 2,900 people joined its demonstration – and the Confederation of Trade Unions, which estimated the number of its marchers at around 2,500.
The police put the numbers at 2,200 and 1,100 respectively.
Several other groups staged smaller-scale marches.
CTU chief executive Mung Siu-tat said Leung had promised workers during his election campaign four years ago that regulations on standard working hours, a universal pension scheme and scrapping the offsetting system would be realised under his leadership, but so far Leung had only set up committees to study these issues.
“The committees have no sincerity in realising these policies,” Mung said. “Now Leung is going to run for a second term. We absolutely do not accept such a person, who has continuously betrayed workers, having a second term.”
The 24-member Standard Working Hours Committee has launched a second public consultation on the issue, which will last until July. But the six members on the body that represent workers have been boycotting meetings, saying the committee had only been focusing on contractual working hours instead of implementing a 44-hour standard working week and an overtime hourly rate 1.5 times the normal rate.
A 60-year-old chef, surnamed Ng, who joined the march on Sunday, said he started work every day at 10am but could not leave his restaurant until around midnight due to a three-hour unpaid lunch break and afternoon break.
“This is very unfair to us,” Ng said. “I’ve not been able to communicate with my wife and two sons very often because of my working hours. When I return home every day, they have already gone to bed.”
Rit Gurung, a Nepalese construction worker, said many working in the industry were forced to work 10 to 12 hours a day with an overtime rate no higher than 1.3 times the normal rate.
A government spokesman said on Sunday the government was committed to improving employee benefits but needed to strike a balance between this and employers’ ability to afford any changes. He said the government would provide timely employment support at a time when Hong Kong’s economy was still subject to “considerable downside risks”.
Meanwhile, around 500 people rallied at Tap Seac Square in Macau on Sunday demanding 90 days of paid maternity leave and improvements to the overseas domestic helper employment system. Around 10 other groups also staged their own protests across Macau.
