A catering labour union has called on Hong Kong authorities to establish a mechanism to halt the controversial labour import scheme after finding that over 200 local employees reported being replaced by imported workers.
The Eating Establishment Employees General Union said on Thursday that some employees reported being fired and replaced by non-local workers employed through the city’s “enhanced” labour import scheme.
Labour minister Chris Sun said last week that the government had approved a total of 54,278 non-local workers – mostly from mainland China – since the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme was launched in early September 2023.
The two-year scheme, set to end in September, allows Hong Kong employers to bring in non-local workers for 26 types of jobs that were previously only open to local residents – including cashiers, hair stylists, sales assistants, and waiters – as well as unskilled or low-skilled posts such as cleaners, dishwashers, and security guards.
More than 8,900 non-local workers worked as waiters – the most popular job taken up by imported workers – followed by junior cooks, according to the Labour and Welfare Bureau.
‘Just cutting costs’
Citing results from an opinion survey on the scheme’s impact on local employees, union chair Lam Chin-kwok said that 70 per cent of more than 2,000 respondents said their employers had imported non-local workers.
Some 90 per cent said they opposed the continuation of the labour import scheme.
Chiu Kwun-chung, head of the union’s labour rights committee, said: “If there are sackings after labour imports, it’s obvious that they aren’t solving staff shortages, or easing the pressure on employees… just cutting costs or relieving operational pressures.”
Chiu also said that some employers had fired mostly older employees and replaced them with imported workers. Dishwashers had also lost their jobs to the labour import scheme, he added.
Under the scheme, companies must pay non-local workers no less than the median monthly wage for that job.
The union called on the government to carry out regular reviews and establish a mechanism to halt the scheme should it compromise the employment of local workers.
Union chair Lam on Thursday also urged the government to establish a reporting system allowing employees to flag their bosses’ alleged abuses of the labour import scheme.
The Federation of Trade Unions, a pro-Beijing coalition that the catering industry union is part of, has also made similar calls, saying the catering and construction sectors were among the hardest hit by unemployment in recent years.
The expansion of labour importation schemes has sparked controversy, with labour groups and political parties raising concerns that they have led to higher unemployment rates and lower salaries among local workers.
