Liberal Party Welcomes Subsidies For Older Workers

The Liberal Party has welcomed the government's move to cover more types of workers under its anti-pandemic relief measures, saying the expansion will better help businesses to secure jobs.

One of the improvements announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Tuesday is for companies to be able to claim wage subsidies for staff over 65 who have MPF accounts, even if they are not making contributions to the funds being as payments are not obligatory for older workers.

Liberal Party lawmakers Frankie Yick, Tommy Cheung and Shiu Ka-fai said the changes are good news for industries such as catering and construction, as well as the operators of green minibuses, who all have a large number of older workers.

But Shiu said he wishes the government could do more to help self-employed workers being as many are struggling.

"Some of the industries don't have MPF for their staff, like hair salons, the beauty industry, and property agents. They don't have MPF usually," he said.

"So for these kind of industries, I would like to ask the government if it can support special subsidies like HK$80,000 for companies to share with their staff."

Workers under 65 whose companies make MPF contributions on their behalf were already covered under the government's wage subsidy scheme, with monthly payments of up to HK$9,000 per employee on offer for six months.

Applications from companies will be accepted from May 25.