[Look at China News, June 16, 2023](See Chinese reporters Liang Lusi and Li Jingyao’s interview and report) The Hong Kong government announced that it will import 20,000 people through the “Industry Imported Labor Plan” to solve the labor shortage problem. Among them, the upper limit of the construction industry quota is 12,000, the aviation industry 6,300, and the minibus and bus drivers a total of 1,700. Applications will be accepted from next month. “Looking China” interviewed current affairs commentator Pan Zhuohong about this.
Pan Zhuohong said that the Hong Kong government has always imported foreign workers, but it has been strictly controlled. “Filipino maids and Indonesian maids are all foreign workers. In fact, there are many types of jobs, including white-collar workers, imported to Hong Kong. But the import of such white-collar foreign workers is very small, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. But the current policy of the Hong Kong government It has made a great turnaround and imported 20,000 foreign workers in the construction, aviation, and transportation industries.”
“For minibus drivers, I would like to say something in particular. Their salary is about HK$12,000 to HK$15,000. Their working environment is not good and their wages are low, so only female drivers are willing to work. There are absolutely no minibuses in Hong Kong. The shortage of drivers.
We saw a lot of tourist buses parked at the pier because tourism in Hong Kong has not yet fully recovered. Let us think about it. In the past, there were so many tour buses running through the urban areas. This means that many tour bus drivers are now unemployed. These tour bus drivers are entitled to flow to the minibus service, why not? This shows that tourist bus drivers would rather switch to other industries than be minibus drivers. The wages of minibus drivers are ridiculously low.
If it is a contract driver in the construction industry, their salary is 20,000 Hong Kong dollars, and their work is easy. Why is the salary of a minibus driver so low? The government imported 1,700 foreign labor drivers to fill the manpower shortage. In fact, this figure is fictitious. The reality is that the industry refuses to increase driver wages, they are exploiting their workers, and the dealerships control the economy of the industry. ”
Pan Zhuohong said that he personally opposes the importation of minibus drivers by the government, “Why is the salary in this industry only HK$12,000 to HK$15,000? The government should order the industry to improve the treatment to attract tourist bus drivers to become minibus drivers.”
He pointed out that in addition to the above-mentioned number of foreign labor imports, the Hong Kong government also changed the existing “Supplementary Labor Scheme” to “Supplementary Labor Optimization Plan”, opening up 26 non-skilled positions that were not allowed to import foreign labor. As long as the employers of these 26 types of job advertisements still cannot hire employees for more than 4 weeks, they can apply for importing foreign workers to fill the vacancies. The 26 types of work include waiters, telephone operators, delivery staff, sales staff, bank tellers, clerks, hair stylists, junior cooks, etc. Therefore, Hong Kong people will lose a lot of jobs in these 26 jobs in the future.
Pan Cheuk-hung said that importing labor will cause some problems. Hong Kong’s working population dropped by 220,000 from 3.68 million in 2018 to 3.46 million now. These 220,000 people are immigrants. “The government said it was a shortage of workers, but I think this is a fiction. Because it has dropped by 220,000 people, including professionals and blue-collar workers, and the labor force is not very large. But the government said that the labor force has fallen, and foreign labor has to be imported to fill the void.”
Pan Zhuohong said: “I think the government should not import minibus drivers, because the fundamental reason is unreasonable treatment. The construction industry is short of manpower and needs to import foreign labor. Other types of work have enough manpower. If we import labor casually, it will be against Those industries had a big impact.”
He said that the construction industry plans to import 12,000 people. Laborers from different villages or countries live in a centralized place. With different living habits, there will be conflicts or fights, and even gangsters, drug abuse and gambling will appear, causing social chaos and public security conditions. worse. He urged the Hong Kong government to handle foreign labor importation policy carefully.
Source: Watch China
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