Virus Relief Fund Full Of Loopholes: Unions

Trade unions have warned that the latest round of anti-epidemic relief measures in Hong Kong don't go far enough, and there are loopholes in the scheme that need to be plugged.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Confederation of Trade Unions' chairwoman Carol Ng said the government's latest HK$137.5 billion relief package fails to help potentially hundreds of thousands of casual workers and people who have recently lost their jobs.

Ng said that a lot of freelancers and self-employed workers won't be eligible to receive 50 percent of their wages up to HK$9,000 from the government.

She also suggested that firms could give the government salary data from earlier in the year, before some implemented pay cuts, and then pocket the difference when the government subsidies come in.

"For those people already dismissed by their employers during this period of time between January until now, these group of workers are regarded as unemployed, so for anyone who’s unemployed, this relief fund is none of their business," Ng said.

"If the government is asking [employers] to use the salary figures in January and the headcount figures in March in order to apply for this relief fund, the end result is that a salary gap and differences already occur. Very likely the employers [will] apply for more than they need."

Ng went on to say that the relief fund allows employers to exploit their remaining workers.

"You look at those people remaining in the company, if they’ve already started their unpaid leave or already received a pay cut, what can they do? Not very much because they have zero bargaining power. So if the employer immediately now is asking them to have a further pay cut or extending the amount of days of their unpaid leave, what can they do? Nothing."

Ng urged the government to set up an unemployment fund to help jobless workers for six months and subsidise those who don't have a stable job.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Alice Mak who told RTHK's Janice Wong that there are loopholes in the Employment Support Scheme.

Mak said employees aged 65 and over, and those who were laid off before January, don't qualify for support.

"For those who are aged above 65, the employers do not need to contribute MPF for those employees, they do not have the record of MPF contributions. Without such records, the employee is not entitled to get the subsidies from the government. This will be a factor for the employers to consider whether or not they will have to lay off the certain employee who is above 65."

She said it was possible for a boss to lay off an older worker, and replace them with a younger employee with an MPF contribution record who will also be paid less.

"For those employees who were laid off before January this year, they cannot apply for this scheme, so the government should consider to set up another scheme, maybe similar to this one with a monthly subsidy of HK$9,000 to those employees who can prove that they are unemployed if they were laid off before January this year," Mak said.

The HK$137.5 billion funding package will be put to a vote on Friday in Legco's Finance Committee. Mak said that although there are loopholes in the scheme, she wants the relief measures to be passed because "at least they can help some employees, although not all the employees."