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25th anniversary of the return. Labor Insurance | Restoring the Right to Collective Bargaining Finds a New Balance for Labor Relations

2022-06-29T00:14:24.969Z


In June 1997, on the eve of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the then Legislative Council Member, Mr. Lee Cheuk-yan, proposed the "Employees' Rights of Representation, Consultation and Collective Bargaining Ordinance" in the form of a private bill and passed it, but the Provisional Legislative Council would enact it two weeks later.


In June 1997, on the eve of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the then Legislative Council Member, Mr. Lee Cheuk-yan, proposed the "Employees' Rights of Representation, Consultation and Collective Bargaining Ordinance" in the form of a private bill and passed, but the Provisional Legislative Council froze it two weeks later, and It was repealed in October of the same year.

The lack of collective bargaining rights has resulted in laborers being helpless in a passive position, without bargaining power, even in the face of excessive working hours, low hourly wages, and unreasonable dismissal.


Entering the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the social situation of the strong and the weak has not been broken.

Even though the Legislative Council finally approved the cancellation of the MPF hedging mechanism, which has been entangled for more than 20 years, it will not be officially implemented until 2025 at the earliest.

The Chief Executive-designate, Li Jiachao, has repeatedly promised that different stakeholders will work together to solve the Hong Kong issue. However, in terms of labor protection, if a new balance of labor-management relations is not rediscovered, there may still be a long and bumpy road to go.


"25th Anniversary of the Return of Hong Kong" In-depth Report Series


Hong Kong has always lacked the right to collective bargaining, and workers lacked a channel for dialogue when fighting for their rights.

(Photo by Deng Boliang)

Without the right to collective bargaining,


how can labor and management have equal dialogue

The MPF system itself is a product of the British Hong Kong government's compromise with the business community.

In 1995, in order to formulate a retirement protection system before the handover of sovereignty, the British Hong Kong government hastily completed the entire process of submitting a motion to the Legislative Council and passed it within four months; in order to allow the business-led Legislative Council to support the MPF In the plan, the authorities even proposed hedging and benefiting the business community.

Even after the return of Hong Kong, this attitude of compromising with the business community has continued to this day, and labor has no strength to talk to management.

Whenever issues in the labor field are discussed, including maximum working hours, minimum wages, and the cancellation of MPF hedging, the business community will oppose it for many reasons such as "increasing the burden on small and medium-sized enterprises", driving the government to compromise, resulting in repeated delays or shelving of many bills.

Li Junrong, a lecturer in the Department of Humanities, Design and Social Sciences of the School of Professional and Continuing Education, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, retorted in an interview with Hong Kong 01: Labor costs are an important part of business operations. It is that the affordability of SMEs is slightly smaller, but the labor cost has a limited share of the total operating cost.

Zhou Xiaosong, secretary-general of the Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Associations and a member of the Labour sector of the Legislative Council, once lamented in "Hong Kong 01" that the SAR government's policies and public resources are often inclined to the business sector, resulting in a lack of equal bargaining positions between employees and employers, resulting in labor rights and interests. Inequality. Whenever there are disputes related to labor rights, there are always voices who blame Hong Kong for not having a “right to collective bargaining” law. Once the government evades the problem, workers have no choice but to rely on collective actions such as strikes to force management to negotiate.

The "right to collective bargaining" refers to the right of labor to conduct collective negotiations with management through labor unions to negotiate working conditions, remuneration, etc.

According to Marx's theory, wage labor in capitalism is a relationship of exploitation, and exploitation is the appropriation of the surplus value of laborers by capitalists.

That is to say, there is a natural asymmetry of property and power between employers and employees.

Therefore, collective bargaining is widely recognized by the international community, and together with the right to freedom of association and the right to strike are collectively referred to as the "three labor rights".

The laws of many countries recognize these three rights, including Japan, South Korea, Singapore and other countries.

Therefore, in these places, capitalists cannot directly determine employment conditions unilaterally, and laborers will not be in an absolutely passive and slaughtered position.

Lam Chun-shing, chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Federation of Labour Associations and a member of the Legislative Council Election Committee, believes that without the right to collective bargaining, workers can only obtain bargaining opportunities by organizing trade unions and collective strikes.

(Photo by Ou Jiale)

Article 27 of the Basic Law stipulates that Hong Kong residents enjoy "the right and freedom to form and join trade unions and to strike", but the right to collective bargaining alone is not mentioned.

Lin Zhensheng, chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Federation of Labour Associations and a member of the Legislative Council Election Committee, told Hong Kong 01 that these three rights are complementary to each other, and he does not think which is more important.

However, without the right to collective bargaining, workers can only obtain bargaining opportunities by organizing trade unions and collective strikes, and their bargaining power is relatively low.

The collective bargaining right had a brief existence in Hong Kong for more than three months, but unfortunately died prematurely.

The then Secretary for Education and Manpower, Wong Wing-ping, responded to the matter at the Legislative Council meeting in 1998, arguing that the SAR government had not violated the provisions of the International Labour Convention and the Basic Law, and did not intend to reconsider the repealed labour laws.

The reason given by Wang Yongping is that Article 4 of International Labour Convention No. 98 stipulates that "measures in accordance with national conditions shall be taken when necessary to encourage and promote the broadest development and use of collective agreements between employers or employers' organizations and workers' organizations. Voluntary negotiation procedures, so that the terms and conditions of employment can be determined in this way.” However, the Convention does not mandate that the relevant countries or regions must legislate to enforce collective bargaining, and Hong Kong has taken measures to encourage and promote voluntary negotiations between employers and employees.

In fact, the right to collective bargaining does not interfere with the content of the agreement reached by the labor and management. It only determines the rules and frameworks that the two parties must abide by for negotiations, and ensures that the content of the agreement is binding.

In short, use certain rules of the game to keep labor relations from being unduly unbalanced.

Lin Zhensheng believes that under the requirement of the right to collective bargaining, the trade union and the government should negotiate the results and respect the commitment together, which will help to improve labor relations. , I believe that the legislative work is "still far away".

Hong Kong 01 Cartography


Unregulated

standard working hours

The "right to collective bargaining" cannot see the light of day, and wage earners can only continue to be exploited by employers.

Taking standard working hours as an example, Hong Kong has always been one of the hardest cities in the world because the authorities have not legislated to limit the maximum working hours.

Kisi, an American smart solution company, published the report "Work-Life Balance in Global Cities in 2022" earlier, and found that among 51 American cities and 49 global economic hub cities, Hong Kong ranked 93rd, or the seventh from the bottom, reflecting the work of wage earners. It is extremely unbalanced with life; at the same time, Hong Kong is the city with the second worst overwork situation in the world, second only to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with an overworked ratio of 17.9%; according to the latest estimate of the number of employed people in Hong Kong released by the Census and Statistics Department, 3.745 million people, About 670,000 people are overworked.

Statistics from the Census and Statistics Department last year showed that the average working week of Hong Kong people is 44 hours.

According to UBS's 2018 "Prices and Income" report, Hong Kongers work the longest in the world on average, at 52 hours per week.

Due to the staggeringly long working hours, whenever there are cases of sudden death of employees in Hong Kong while at work, there is concern and speculation that these cases may be related to overwork.

According to statistics from the Labour Department, non-accidental on-the-job deaths are on the rise, and over 75% of them involve heart or brain diseases.

In 2017, the Labour Department commissioned the OSH to conduct a study on the relationship between such cases and work situations; the Legislative Council Panel on Manpower also discussed the study in June last year, and it was mentioned that the OSH analyzed a total of 200 cases of mental health problems in the workplace. vascular disease deaths, but concluded that most of the cases were directly related to personal medical history, old age, personal health risk factors, etc., and no cases were determined to involve only work-related risk factors.

Hong Kong is the second most overworked city in the world after Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with a work-overwork rate of 17.9%.

(file picture)

The public was generally disappointed by the report.

Among them, Xiao Qianwen, director-general of the Industrial Casualty Rights Association, once criticized that although the victim has a long-term illness, high working hours may induce diseases.

However, the OSH did not conduct in-depth research on the relationship between working hours, type of work and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in each case, nor did it face up to the potential relationship between sudden death cases and overwork.

Regrettably, the Labour Department agrees with the findings of the OSHC's investigation, and believes that there are many causes of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, as well as factors related to non-work conditions. Awareness of risk factors.

According to the Employment Compensation Ordinance, if an employee suffers from an occupational disease specified in the Ordinance, the employer is responsible for paying compensation, but the specified occupational disease does not include cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and death cases caused by overwork.

In other words, many victims who died suddenly due to overwork were not judged to be related to the work situation, and their families could not receive compensation.

"Hong Kong 01" has noticed that in the occupational safety and health statistics released by the Labour Department, there are more casualties in the categories of public administration and social and personal services. Inquire whether the Labour Department is related to overwork.

In response to this, the Labour Department responded that there is no internationally accepted norm for occupational injuries caused by "overwork", and there is no such definition in Hong Kong.

In fact, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have already included cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases caused by overwork into the category of occupational diseases, and the accumulation of fatigue caused by long hours of work is also the criterion for determining overwork.

In other words, the international community is not completely without the definition and criteria for occupational injuries caused by "overwork".

But the government has done little to regulate working hours and define karoshi, and ordinary employees have no room to negotiate, fight or negotiate.

Li Junrong said frankly that regulating working hours would shake the core interests of capitalists.

If the government does not take it seriously, the regulation of standard working hours will be a long way off.

Li Junrong said that if the government does not interfere at all, the management will always win.

(Photo by Huang Baoying)

Minimum wage lags behind


grassroots in-service poverty

The lack of labor protection caused by the gap in collective bargaining rights also includes the persistent low and slow growth of the minimum wage.

For grassroots workers, every cent they get after working hard day and night determines the livelihood of individuals and families.

Hong Kong implemented the "Minimum Wage Ordinance" on May 1, 2011, establishing a statutory minimum wage system, with hourly wages as the unit and setting a minimum wage.

The authorities claim to have struck an appropriate balance between preventing underpayment, reducing the loss of low-paid jobs, and maintaining Hong Kong's economic development and competitiveness.

At that time, the minimum statutory wage was 28 yuan, which was reviewed every two years in principle.

However, according to the reports of the Minimum Wage Commission over the years, since its implementation in 2011, the number of recipients of the minimum wage has dropped from the initial 6.4%. 14,300 (0.5%).

In addition, its negligible growth rate has not kept pace with the changes in inflation, and the society has long said that "the minimum wage is lower than the CSSA".

Affected by the economic recession and high unemployment rate caused by the new crown epidemic, the minimum wage level that should have been reviewed last year will be maintained at 37.5 yuan per hour determined on May 1, 2019, and will be as soon as It will be adjusted in May next year.

This means that the 14,300 grassroots workers in Hong Kong can only freeze their wages for four years.

At the end of April this year, the Minimum Wage Commission launched an eight-week public consultation, inviting views from all sectors of the community on the review of the statutory minimum wage level, which ended on May 31.

During this period, a representative of the labor sector proposed that the minimum wage should be significantly increased to 46 yuan per hour and changed to "annual inspection".

On May 29, Law Chi-kwong, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, said in a blog post that, at the legislative level, it is possible to conduct a review once a year, but the large amount of research, analysis and consultation required in the review process can only be done every two years. The review should be completed under the framework of one review; however, if the review is to be conducted once a year, the entire review process will have to be greatly compressed, so now is not the best time to discuss the annual review.

Ironically, he also wrote in his blog, "If there is a political atmosphere in the society, 'hardening' is the moral high ground, 'concession' is giving up the principle, everything only depends on who has the biggest fist, whoever is louder and who is right, The society will only deepen or even tear apart, and it will be difficult for the multi-party platform to function.” As a result, Zhou Xiaosong strongly criticized that tens of thousands of grass-roots families can no longer live with dignity, and they are only weak and without capital “hardened” ".

In a situation where capital is strong and labor is weak, grass-roots workers are only small people who have little voice and are overwhelmed.

Li Junrong asked, Hong Kong has always pursued the concept of "free market", but if the government does not intervene at all, loses the rules of fair competition, and condones the monopoly of enterprises, is it still called a free market?

"The establishment of the minimum wage by the SAR government has been a big breakthrough. At that time, there were even voices saying that the government violated the concept of 'free market'." He believes that if the government does not interfere at all and allows the labor and management to negotiate on their own, then there will be more powerful bargaining Capable employers are always "winners".

CSSA does not guarantee the quality of life of the elderly, and many elderly still have to work to subsidize their living.

(Photo by Huang Baoying)


Seriously

insufficient retirement security

Under the rules of the game in Hong Kong, a capitalist society, the exploited laborers lack the right to collective bargaining and are the relative "losers" of the game. After decades of hard work, they still end up in a bleak night of poverty, loneliness and hardship.

Lin Zhensheng pointed out that the newly de-hedged MPF is one of the important pillars of Hong Kong employees' retirement life, but the hedging system has accumulated more than 50 billion over the years.

This important pillar has not brought much protection to the wage earners since the return.

In fact, there are institutional flaws in the entire retirement policy and retirement security.

The "Hong Kong Poverty Report 2020" shows that before the government's policy intervention, the number of poor people aged 65 or above was 584,000, and after the policy intervention, it was reduced to 188,000.

Despite this, Zhou Yongxin, Hong Kong's "Godfather of Social Welfare" and emeritus professor of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of the University of Hong Kong, once pointed out to "Hong Kong 01" that the Hong Kong government is only using non-constant cash benefits to achieve short-term effects to highlight A beautiful reduction, but it does not help the case to get rid of poverty, let alone settle the elderly and provide them with support.

The World Bank proposed a three-pillar retirement security scheme in 1994, and in 2005 proposed a more complete five-pillar structure.

First, the Zero Pillar is a social security system that provides a minimum income to the poor elderly.

In Hong Kong, however, there are two major problems with pillar zero.

On the one hand, regularized cash benefits such as CSSA and Old Age Living Allowance are subject to asset test restrictions and are not universal.

On the other hand, the standard rate of CSSA is still at the "basket" base 26 years ago. With the development of the times, this rate has long been unable to meet basic needs.

A number of authoritative scholars in the social welfare field have conducted research on this issue and found that the CSSA amount cannot effectively meet the basic living expenses, let alone the quality of life.

Second, the first pillar is the public pension fund issued by the government to eligible persons, usually without any review mechanism.

Old Age Allowance (Fruit) is a monthly payment of $1,475 for seniors and is regarded as the first pillar.

Among them, the elderly aged 65 to 69 are required to pass the assets and means test mechanism to receive OAA, while the elderly aged 70 or above do not need to be screened.

However, due to its limited amount, Hong Kong society usually does not regard it as a long-term protection system.

Third, the second pillar is a mandatory occupational or personal retirement protection plan, which requires employees and employers to make contributions to occupational retirement plans or personal retirement plans before retirement.

The MPF is the second pillar of Hong Kong, but it has many problems.

Since the MPF only protects the employed population, only about 2.83 million people in Hong Kong are protected by the MPF, and the MPF still has problems such as excessive administrative costs and the risk of insufficient protection in the form of a lump sum payment.

The third pillar is a voluntary savings system; the fourth pillar is informal support and other non-financial support, through family support or public resource services, to improve the living standards of the elderly.

However, it is difficult for most elderly people in Hong Kong to obtain sufficient retirement protection through savings alone, and nearly 60% of the elderly live alone and have much less contact with their children.

Zhou Yongxin once analyzed "Hong Kong 01" that the deep-rooted concept of filial piety in Chinese society believes that children should support their parents, but the social fertility rate has declined, and many people are still too busy to take care of themselves, let alone take care of their parents.

Therefore, family support is not a guarantee.

Lin Zhensheng said that Li Jiachao talked about the general direction of improving labor conditions in his campaign platform, but he did not propose a detailed solution to the inequality of labor relations.

Even though the right to collective bargaining is far away, he still hopes that the new government can put forward specific measures in terms of occupational safety and health, and improve the government's outsourcing system, opening a new chapter in labor relations.

Please

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to preview the e-weekly report for more in-depth reports.

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Source: hk1

All news articles on 2022-06-29

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