Three in five Hong Kong workers are against the city importing more foreign labour to ease shortages in certain industries, fearing it will threaten job opportunities and further reduce their wages, a survey has found.
The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), the city’s largest labour group, interviewed 3,288 members in July and also found that 29.6 per cent of respondents reported a decrease in pay compared with the previous year.
The federation, which released the results on Sunday, said workers in the retail, food and beverage, and construction industries were among the hardest hit, with nearly one in five reporting joblessness during the survey.
The numbers were significantly higher than the government’s latest unemployment rates for the May to July period, which stood between 4.3 per cent and 5 per cent.
The three sectors were included in the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme announced by the government last year, which allows employers to bring in workers for 26 low-skilled job categories not covered in a previous programme.
Pointing to the construction industry as an example, FTU vice-chairman Chau Sze-kit said there had been a sharp decline in projects starting last year, particularly in the private sector, which had “practically entirely halted” with a 90 per cent drop in available jobs.
“Many of the remaining projects now were tendered around two years ago and are set to be completed by the end of this year or next year, with no new ones in sight to replace them,” Chau said.
“So we do expect the situation to continue being grim.”
Some members had already approached the union for help, saying employers had asked them to take up to a month of unpaid leave because of the lack of work, Chau added.
The federation said the situation in the food services and retail industries was also worrying, in light of the trend of Hongkongers heading to mainland Chinese cities such as Shenzhen for shopping and entertainment, exacerbated by the reluctance of young people to join the sectors.
The survey found that 60.2 per cent of respondents disagreed with importing more foreign workers to ease shortages. Asked why, 84.3 per cent expressed concern that it would threaten local workers’ job opportunities while 71.7 per cent were worried it could further reduce their wages.
Almost half, or 48 per cent of respondents, expressed concern about their job prospects under the combined pressure of foreign labour and programmes to attract talent to the city.
FTU chairman and lawmaker Kingsley Wong-kwok urged the government to freeze the labour importation scheme for the construction sector and prioritise local employment.
He also called for improved wages and working conditions in the sector, with priorities on preventing industrial accidents, excessive hours and wage arrears.
Wong said checks were needed to ensure foreign workers were paid at least the median wage of local staff in the same industry, and to prevent the abuse of the schemes.
He also called for increased transparency in the schemes, with information published regularly about companies that employed imported workers.
Announcing a relaxed recruitment programme for foreign workers in June 2023, Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu said the city had lost about 200,000 people from its workforce in the past few years, half of whom were low-skilled.
