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Labor secretary hints at administrative tilt favoring paid lunch breaks and rest days

Contractors working for government departments may be required to give employees paid meal breaks and rest days, Secretary for Labour Matthew Cheung said Wednesday.

Speaking to a group of reporters at the Legislative Council, Cheung said a decision will come before the minimum wage legislation is enacted on May 1.

It's the first indication showing the government favors either side in the controversy over paid lunch breaks.

Workers should not experience pay cuts after the introduction of the city's minimum wage, Cheung cautioned.

When larger disputes arise, the government will arbitrate, the labor chief said to the gathering.

He added that workers may forward their complaints on the matter to the Labour Department if they feel they have been treated unfairly.

Cheung was responding to concerns voiced by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce that some workers may lose paid lunches and rest days after the minimum wage comes into effect one month later.

The chamber has warned job losses were looming at small and medium-sized enterprises, which employ roughly half of the city's workers, or two million workers, since they will be faced with ballooning staff costs if wages given for paid meal breaks and rest days were bumped up to minimum wage levels.

Previously, the government has said it is up to employers and workers to find a midway point on paid rest, while the chamber argued a rate of HK$28 an hour works out to a monthly minimum salary of roughly HK$6,000, based on 26, eight-hour working days a month.

Scion of the Li Ka-shing family Victor Li Tzar-kuoi also said, while larger corporations more easily absorb the additional costs, smaller enterprises are to have great difficulty.

An attempt to force new contracts that eliminate paid lunch breaks ahead of the minimum wage by fast food conglomerate Caf de Coral has been withdrawn after the company came under sharp criticism from the community.

Some businesses however are continuing to press for altered arrangements.

Some 80 contract cleaners and back-up staff at Eastern Hospital already have had their employment terms changed from monthly to daily standing while their lunch breaks and rest days are no longer included in their pay.

The workers had until Wednesday to sign the new contracts, according to the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Union's Pan Pey-chyou.

Pan said the workers had been looking forward to pay rises of HK$150 to HK$500.

The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions confirmed it had received similar complaints from employees of Tsui Wah restaurant, while its president and Executive Council member Cheng Yiu-tong has urged businesses to be more generous with paid perks.

While the new law does not touch specifically on paid lunch breaks and rest days, Commissioner for Labour Cheuk Wing-hing has said that employers should not unilaterally change terms of employment.

China Daily

(HK Edition 03/31/2011 page1)