The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

There was no make-up leave in the beginning of the new year, and Zhang Jianzong was closed again!

2020-01-25T01:07:03.189Z


The Lunar New Year is coming. This year's New Year's holiday is put on Tuesday. Office workers usually start the market on the fifth day of the year. Colleagues Fan Gong finally don't have to have a "new year's day" face. However, this year's New Year's Day "Red Day" hit Saturday, one star


01 perspective

Written by: Comment Editor

2020-01-25 09:00

Last updated: 2020-01-25 09:00

In the Lunar New Year, it is equally important to get together with your loved ones and rest. This year's New Year's holiday is put on Tuesday, and office workers generally start the market on the fifth day of the new year. The previous "fourth day of the new year" may have to be changed to "the fifth day of the new year." However, the citizens of "Shin Shui Qing" must have noticed that although the second day of the holiday was compensated for one day on Sunday, there was no statutory holiday on the first day of Saturday. Disguised for a day off.

There will be four statutory holidays on Saturday in 2020, the first day of the Lunar New Year (January 25), the Ching Ming Festival (April 4), the day of Good Friday (April 11), and the removal of gifts Day (December 26). When the government published its gazette on the public holiday on the 17th of 2020 last year, it did not arrange for additional leave for these four days. For "wage earners", 2020 will be a particularly long year.

Zhang Jianzong's "Ten Year Covenant"

According to the Employment Regulations, all employees can enjoy 12 days of legal holidays, including New Year's Day, Chinese New Year and Easter, regardless of their length of service. Although the provision states that if a statutory holiday falls on a rest day, the employer should arrange for the employee to take the statutory holiday the next day, and if the next day is an employee's existing holiday, he will make up for it. However, the "Employment Ordinance" currently only guarantees that statutory holidays that overlap with Sundays can be compensated. If the holidays happen to fall on Saturday, it is up to the employer to decide whether or not they can get them. Therefore, for office workers who work five days a day, Saturday is hitting a statutory holiday.

Public holidays and Saturdays overlap, but they do happen from time to time. For example, the day following the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2019, the second day of the Lunar New Year in 2018, and the day following Good Friday. In the past five years, citizens who worked for five days lost a total of 14 public holidays, with an average of three days of "eclipse leave" per year. Faced with this situation, the government has repeatedly remained indifferent. In 2010, the then Chief Executive, Mr Tsang Yam-kuen, promised to discuss with the then Secretary of Labour and Welfare Zhang Jianzong, consider covering the leave arrangement until Saturday, and said that he hoped to bring it to the Legislative Council for review in 2010, which could be implemented as soon as 2011. However, the words of the government were as smooth as words, and the arrangement for the replacement of leave was eventually left. Looking back today, it turned out to be ten years.

Hong Kong encountered the same problem again in 2014. The public holiday in 2015 also hit Saturday on the 4th. The then Secretary for Labour and Welfare Zhang Jianzong not only defeated yesterday, but also throws out a strange set of logic, saying "Not all workers are now five Day work system, if Saturday ’s public holiday is rescheduled on Monday, workers who had been on Saturday ’s holiday will continue to work on the same day. ”Of course, for employees with a six-day work week,“ Saturday ’s holiday ”will make They get an extra day off. However, Hong Kong's working hours are notorious and need to be improved. Since Zhang Jianzong knew that some "wage earners" need to work for six days, he should provide "saturday leave" and return their benefits.

Ten years later, Zhang Jianzong has been promoted from the director of the Bureau of Labour and Welfare to the Chief Secretary for Administration, but Saturday's compensation leave for all wage earners is still far away until 2020. (Photo by Ou Jiale)

Full implementation of the five-day work week

Ten years later, Zhang Jianzong has been promoted from the director of the Bureau of Labour and Welfare to the Chief Secretary for Administration, but Saturday's compensation leave for all wage earners is still far away until 2020. In the short-term, the government should strive for legislation for a group of office workers and move to make flexible arrangements for Saturday's legal holiday. Even though Hong Kong society has been dominated by the business sector for many years, the Government should be able to win the support of the business sector and legislators for only a few days of vacation a year.

In the long run, since Zhang Jianzong knew that the five-day work week was not fully implemented, he should step up the pace of implementation instead of using this as a shield, arguing many issues about labor rights. The current Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Law Chi-kwong, should review the implementation of the current five-day work week and convince the business community to support the full implementation of the "five-day work week".

From time to time, the business community opposes the full implementation of the "five-day work week" on the grounds that reducing working hours will reduce productivity, but the relationship between working hours and productivity is actually not obvious. Looking at the richest economies in the world, there is a clear correlation between high productivity and low working hours. Take Luxembourg, which has been ranked as the world's top productivity for two consecutive years, as an example. The country's working hours in 2017 were 1,512 hours, which is nearly 130 hours shorter than the 1,643 hours in 2016, and productivity has improved. The British "Guardian" also reported that the Netherlands and Germany worked five and six hours less than the United Kingdom respectively, and the economic performance of both countries was better than the latter. For economic reasons, it is difficult to say the public about the "five-day work". The government should show commitment and promote the "five-day work week" legislation.

Whether it is a "five-day work week" or "saturday recuperation" is not only good for employees. For employers, the number of employee breaks has increased, work efficiency has been improved, and employee benefits have been improved, which is also beneficial to the company in the long run. The government cannot limit its vision to the linear logic of "working hours" equal to "high efficiency". Office workers, as the growth engine of the society, allow employees to keep up their spirits to go to work, and their work efficiency will be higher than that of employees with insufficient rest and "dressing up" in sitting positions.

On Saturday, it was a legal holiday, and the office workers took a day off in disguise. (Screenshot of "One-stop Travel")

01 perspective

Chinese New Year Labor Protection Labor Law 01 Viewpoint

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2020-01-25

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.