Transcript of remarks by SLW on working hours policy
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Reporter: Many agree that, under the Government's proposals, many of those workers earning $11,000 already have contracts, and many of those contracts state that they have to work 12 hours a day. How would it actually benefit them? I mean, they still have long working hours and they have no bargaining power.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Apart from legislating for the employers to enter into written employment contracts with the employees with the working hours and the overtime compensation specified, we will also ask the Labour Department to make use of the tripartite committees in nine sectors, and we will also add two new sectors which will include the cleansing service and elderly service, to discuss the appropriate working hours standards and the overtime compensation arrangement, and the good practices for the management of working hours. In line with the discussion, the employers will make reference and adopt the proposed arrangement (under the sector-specific guidelines). I think that will be a good step forward to improve our working hours arrangement, including its transparency and the suitable number of hours.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Issued at HKT 13:04
Issued at HKT 13:04
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