Motion Debate on Labour Day

Madam President, ever since the time of the first-term Legislative Council, Members representing the labour sector have been moving a motion on protecting labour rights every year around the Labour Day on 1 May. The relevant motions and amendments moved over these few years have been rather specific in wording, mostly covering collective bargaining, minimum wage, continuous contract and unfair dismissal. That is why the Liberal Party has remained opposed to all these motions throughout the years.

The original motion this year "urges the Government to ensure that all workers in Hong Kong enjoy the right to decent work", and Mr LEUNG Fu-wah's amendment urges all to "make concerted efforts, care for each other and build a more harmonious labour relationship". The Liberal Party thinks that all this can be supported.

Mr LEUNG Fu-wah's amendment mentions "through enhancing the consciousness of the need to safeguard labour rights". By "enhancing", does he mean the enactment of more legislation? If yes, we do have some reservations. However, having listened through his speech, I cannot find any reference to this. He simply referred to a number of specific cases.

Madam President, when it comes to labour relations in Hong Kong nowadays, the Liberal Party thinks that solidarity, as also mentioned by Mr Ambrose LAU, is most important under the current situation. We have also said that with the support of Labour Department officials, the Labour Advisory Board has managed to ease the many tense labour disputes. Society in Hong Kong is certainly harmonious. In other places, if the situation is as bad as that of Hong Kong now, with many people thrown out of job, with many employers caught in difficulties, with the raging of atypical pneumonia, and with many employers telling their employers to take no-pay leave, will the people there still so willingly discuss things with their employers and accept the necessary arrangements, in very much the same way as the people of Hong Kong do? The employers and employees in Hong Kong are all very pragmatic in their handling of problems. As long as they can still manage, employers will not ask their employees to take no-pay leave, nor will they ask their employees to accept reduced wages. This is the good side of the story.

Quite a number of Members who spoke before me have referred to many specific cases. Overall, I would think that there are bound to be some individual employees who have to deal with this kind of employers; to put it the other way, there are bound to be employers who behave like this. But I think in general, employers and employees in Hong Kong are both very scrupulous, and unless there is no alternative, no one will ever do the unusual things described by the Members earlier on.

In his motion today, Mr LAU Chin-shek makes special reference to decent work. The United Nations no doubt has set down a series of definitions in this respect, but even Mr LAU Chin-shek himself admits that issues like minimum wage and collective bargaining are rather contentious in Hong Kong, and that there are very divergent viewpoints. That is why he said that he had not included all these specific issues in the motion. Well, I would think that in the context of Hong Kong, which upholds principles of free economy, it is most imperative that economic development be sustained.

A few years ago, when the unemployment rate was between 3% and 4%, the voices fighting for labour rights were surprisingly much louder. It was argued that when employers and the commercial sector made profits, they should offer more to employees. And, people even asked whether legislation should be enacted if employers were reluctant to offer more to their employees. Such voices were much louder then than they are now.

Nowadays, the unemployment rate is extremely high; many employers are facing severe difficulties, and the number of bankruptcy cases has been rising over the past two years. For example, there were already 8,920 cases of bankruptcy in the first quarter of this year, a number much larger than the 4000 cases recorded in the same period last year. Unexpectedly, labour relations are more harmonious in the increasingly difficult business environment. Many employees themselves can see that the business of their employers is worsening. The business of restaurants is poor. Employees are very understanding towards their employers who can make no profit and even have to incur losses. Employees are understandably worried that they may receive no wages. But they can also see that while their employers also receive no wages, they still have to incur losses because they must pay rents and wages despite poor business. Employees can appreciate the difficult situation of employers, so they negotiate with them, and with mutual agreement, problems are handled more satisfactorily — some employees accept reduced wages while others simply take no-pay leave. This may be a characteristic of Hong Kong. If this characteristic can be enhanced and maintained, our economy may recover more quickly. This is our hope. I must of course add that this hope is founded on the assumption that the dollar-peg is to continue. As for other aspects, we can only rely on the adjustments of rents and wages. This is also the only alternative we have.

Madam President, this is the very first time over so many years that the Liberal Party renders its support to motions and amendments like the original motion and the two amendments today. Thank you, Madam President.