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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2020-10-10 07:00
Last update date: 2020-10-10 07:00
At the end of September, Democratic Party Legislative Council Member Yin Siu Kin, cleaning workers from Tin Ching Village, 9 Yuen Long District Councillors and representatives of the cleaning service trade union came to the Housing Department's housing estates on issues such as different pay for cleaning workers for equal work and insufficient protection and support during the epidemic. Office petition.
The monthly salary of the outsourced cleaners in Tin Ching Village in this petition is only $10,197, which is more than $3,000 in wages compared to nearby housing estates such as Tin Yiu Village of $13,800 and Tin Tsz Village of $13,200.
One of the reasons for such serious "different pay for equal work" is that after the Haili labor boom, the government reformed the outsourcing bid scoring system, lowering the "price" factor to 50%, and raising the worker wage factor to 12.5% to make the new scoring system. The salaries of cleaners who signed the new contract have increased significantly.
This was a good thing, but the problem is that the Housing Department did not uniformly improve the wages of the new and old contracts, which caused the absurd situation of "different pay for equal work" and "helping the new without helping the old".
The Tin Ching Village Service Contract came into effect on April 1, 2019, and is the last batch of the Old Testament.
In other words, if there is no intervention, the workers in Tianqing Village will have to wait until the contract expires on March 31, 2022, before they can sign a new contract and get equal pay for the same work as their neighbors.
However, if the Housing Department renews the contract with its outsourcing company and does not re-tender, the problem of low wages "three years after three years" may arise.
"Different pay for equal work" is not only related to the immediate interests of grassroots cleaners, but also reflects the deficiencies in the rights and interests of local labor. The government has the responsibility to administratively standardize the wages of the new and old contracts to make up for the shortcomings of outsourcing.
(Photo by Zhang Haowei)
To make matters worse, the problems caused by the outsourcing of grassroots work are not limited to "different pay for equal work."
The Federation of Trade Unions has revealed that some public housing contractors tried to reduce the cost of severance payments. For example, some companies renewed their contracts after the expiry of the contract, but contracted out the work to the subsidiary, which made the employees lose their severance qualifications. Many workers' seniority and annual leave are not recognized by the new company after transfer.
These situations reflect that there are many loopholes in outsourcing. As the largest user of outsourcing services and the protector of labor rights, the government has the responsibility to review the specific requirements and details such as salary increases and severance in the bidding contract to protect the rights and interests of grassroots workers.
In addition to the loopholes in the outsourcing system, the workload and work risks of cleaning workers have increased significantly during the special period of the epidemic, which is actually equivalent to a disguised pay cut. The economic downturn has made these cleaners who were originally weaker to resist danger feel pressured.
Helplessly, the government’s support for this is extremely inadequate. Recently, the social welfare team has received a number of requests for help from cleaning workers who were dismissed. One of the reasons is the loophole in the "Ensure Employment" program that allows new people to be replaced. It is also difficult for workers to find jobs again.
(Photo by Ou Jiale)
The "Property Management Industry Anti-epidemic Support Program" recently established by the government with the Anti-epidemic Anti-epidemic Fund is also full of loopholes.
The plan provides frontline security and cleaning staff with an "anti-epidemic hard work allowance" of HK$1,000 per person per month. However, the scope of the allowance is limited to private residential and commercial and residential properties. Shopping malls, industrial buildings, entertainment venues and parks are excluded. .
At the same time, because the plan requires company applications, and the cleaning of single old buildings is generally undertaken by small companies, most of them are afraid of trouble and do not apply. Chen Qiucheng of the Property Management and Security Workers Association pointed out that many security and cleaning workers are due to employers. No application plan to benefit.
Regrettably, even after the second round of the epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic fund, the government still has not made up the above loopholes.
The freezing of the minimum wage for two years earlier has caused the grassroots workers to lose protection. As for the various abuses brought about by the outsourcing system and the lack of government support under the epidemic, the cleaning workers have become helpless.
However, it is the responsibility of a government and the civilization of a society to work together with the grassroots of society to overcome the difficulties. The Hong Kong government must not evade many more and ignore the lack of outsourcing regulations and support under the epidemic.
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