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Transcript of remarks by SLW on layoff of Hong Kong Disneyland employees
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     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, on the layoff of Hong Kong Disneyland employees after attending Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Day event today (April 16):

Reporter: Some more labour are urging the Government to stop Disneyland's layoff, what is the (Government's) position of that? And are you worried that what are they also becoming of?

Secretary for Labour and Welfare: As Secretary for Labour and Welfare, I honestly do not want to see any retrenchment exercises going on, but I gather that in this particular case, Disneyland has given terms better than the statutory provisions. For example, they haven't chosen to offset the MPF (Mandatory Provident Fund) of the employees concerned. But in fact, at the moment, given the downturn in inbound tourism, and the pace of local consumption has slackened somewhat, and also given the uncertainty in environment outside Hong Kong, there is certainly pressure on unemployment in certain sectors, particularly retails, restaurant trade and also hotel business. On the last occasion when I announced the unemployment rate, on year-on-year basis, retail (unemployment rate for retail sector) has gone up by 0.5 percentage point, that for hotel industry has also gone up by 1.8 percentage point, we are talking about the last occasion when we announced the unemployment rates. So we generally expect pressure on various sectors because of this new development. We will keep a very close eye on development and do what we can to help any employees affected.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Saturday, April 16, 2016
Issued at HKT 16:25

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