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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the remarks made by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, on minimum wage after attending two radio programmes this morning (July 19):
Reporter: Do you expect a large number of people will be losing jobs after the minimum wage law is implemented?
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: I can't rule out the possibility that some marginal workers may be displaced by the new measure but we stand ready to help them through retraining programmes, reengineering them and particularly retraining them. And if circumstances really warrant, we are prepared to provide them with social security. But our objective is to provide a minimum wage which will forestall excessively low wages and at the same time avoid serious displacement of jobs. So we have to strike a balance here. That's why the starting wage rate has to be set at an optimum level to avoid, particularly, heavy job losses.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, July 19, 2010
Issued at HKT 12:28
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