Govt Urged To Provide Temporary Jobs To Unemployed

The Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) on Monday called on the Hong Kong government to create 50,000 temporary jobs to provide a lifeline to those who have lost their livelihoods due to the coronavirus outbreaks in the city.

The confederation said the administration should start projects like cleaning, and building repair and maintenance, to provide jobs to people and said it expects the city's unemployment rate to rise for the next six months.

The union said the government should also look at ways to give people cash directly.

It said those who have lost their jobs or been put on furloughs should be given 80 percent of the pay they were getting before, as well as subsidise employers affected by the government's two-week mandatory closure of some establishments.

The confederation said a survey of some 400 people it did showed many have seen their incomes slashed by at least half in the last months. Some of them even saw their incomes reduced to zero.

The survey also found 30 percent of the respondents were showing signs of depression, like a lack of sleep and loss of appetite.

At a media briefing of the CTU, one woman named Stacey Wong detailed her plight.

She said she was a freelancer in the public relations and marketing sector and her sister was also a freelancer.

But because of the coronavirus outbreak, they are not getting any work and her father has become the sole breadwinner of the family.

Wong said they may have enough to get the necessities, but still have to limit themselves to two meals a day to make ends meet.

“It is a very tough situation,” she said.

Law Teng-king, a dim sum chef for a Chinese restaurant chain who was also there, said she has been put on furlough for more than a month.

She said she doesn't dare seek compensation from her company, as she fears she could be blacklisted from future work at the restaurant chain.

Law said her part-time colleagues have been let go and supervisors have been asked to take no-pay leave and a 20 percent pay cut.

The temporary closure of bars has seen employees in these establishments losing their incomes, as no-pay leave has become common in the sector, said Cat Hou from the Bartenders & Mixologists Union.

Some have been put on no-pay leave for 25 days, she said.

“Some of them have been sacked,” she said. “Some have changed their jobs two times in three months already."