1 Public will pay for higher wages, warn builders
Agnes Lam, SCMP 21 September 2007
Building costs will be pushed to a new high as more workers get higher pay after the bar benders' marathon strike, the Hong Kong Construction Association warned yesterday.
Conrad Wong Tin-cheung, president of the association, said labour accounted for 40 per cent to 60 per cent of construction costs.
"Labour costs are expected to go up by 10 per cent. If workers' salaries go up by 10 per cent, total construction costs will go up by 4 per cent to 6 per cent.
"Construction costs in Hong Kong are already higher than other places. The increase in cost will be shifted to private property buyers, or taxpayers in the case of government projects. The city's competitiveness may also be affected."
Painters and plasterers recently received pay rises of 5 per cent to 10 per cent, Mr Wong said, while plumbers were still in discussion with their employers about their annual pay rise. The daily wage for painters and plasterers is about HK$700 to HK$800.
"I think plumbers will solve their problem easily, as the workers and the employers have engaged in a rational dialogue to discuss the matter. A strike will not happen."
Referring to the 36-day bar benders' strike, which ended on August 12, Mr Wong said everyone lost out.
"It is a lose-lose situation for all - workers, bar-bending contractors, main contractors, developers and society all have suffered from the crisis. I think we have all learned a good lesson from the strike.
"Society has paid a high price for the month-long industrial action. About 60 construction sites were affected by the incident and about 20 of them were government projects.
"It will take a few months for workers to catch up the construction progress which was delayed during the strike. Main contractors also have to bear higher costs to hire workers for longer periods to finish construction projects."
Mr Wong said property developers had been considerate and understanding about the difficulties facing contractors, and so far no property developer had sought compensation from contractors for delays.
"In the past, the workers usually began their talks with their bosses in July about their annual salary adjustment. But the negotiation will begin in March next year, which means they will have nearly six months to hold talks about the issue, so I think they should have enough time to talk.
"The differences between the bar benders and the contractors are in fact not very big. I still wonder why the industrial action lasted for 36 days. I think more communication is needed so that both parties can solve problems through negotiation."
Bar benders had insisted on an 8-hour day for HK$880 or HK$900 for 8-1/4 hours of work, while the contractors offered 8-1/4 hours of work for HK$880 in the last round of negotiations. The industrial action came to an end as workers finally accepted HK$860 for 8 hours of work.
2 'We missed mansion chance
Officers not sensitive to bid to save King Yin Lei, admits Carrie Lam
Olga Wong, Helen Wu and Martin Wong, SCMP 21 September 2007
The secretary for development yesterday admitted the government missed its chance to spare the Chinese-style King Yin Lei mansion from wreckers because its officers were "not sensitive" to the significance of a written offer to save the building.
Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's admission came a day after the South China Morning Post revealed the then owner of the mansion wrote to the Chief Executive's Office in April seeking talks on preserving the 71-year-old building in Stubbs Road. The office passed the letter to Home Affairs Bureau officials, who sent it to the Antiquities and Monuments Office, which overlooked it.
In June 2004 officials looking at preservation of the mansion decided to take a "wait and see" approach, according to confidential Antiquities Advisory Board meeting documents obtained by the Post. The advisory board met to debate how to prevent demolition of the mansion when former owner Stephen Yow Mok-shing offered it for sale in 2004, but decided to adopt the "wait and see approach until the tender results were made available".
The property was subsequently withdrawn from sale following low bids.
The board considered making a formal statement recognising the heritage value of the building to protect it from demolition "instead of going through the grading procedure, which took time". It was decided the board chairman should be interviewed by local media to express concern over the building's future.
Albert Lai Kwong-tak, core member of the Conservancy Association, said the minutes showed where the entire process had gone wrong: "It is a failure in mentality among officials that they tend not to do anything until the issue goes wrong."
Mrs Lam's remarks yesterday referred to the letter sent on behalf of Mr Yow seeking preservation.
"I agree that the colleagues dealing with the letter were comparatively not sensitive enough to discover that it was an old building many people cared for," said Mrs Lam, who was Home Affairs Bureau permanent secretary at the time. "So if there was a chance to discuss [the preservation], we should have responded to it actively and we should have met."
Asked which colleagues Mrs Lam was referring to, her spokesman said: "Top officials, including former home affairs secretary Patrick Ho Chi-ping, and Mrs Lam had never received the letter."
Mrs Lam admitted the government had not been in touch with the new buyer, who sealed the deal on September 6. "We appeal to the new owner to sit down and talk with us to reach a mutually acceptable agreement that could meet the community's expectation," she said.
Managing director of Y.T. Realty Group, Wong Chi-keung, who signed the sale-and-purchase agreement for the mansion, said his boss, Cheung Chung-kiu, was not the buyer.
"Mr Cheung himself has already denied this. He only bought the property on behalf of a mainland business friend of his," he told reporters. Mr Wong did not deny the possibility that the site had been bought for redevelopment, adding that the friend was seeking legal advice.
The chairwoman of the Conservancy Association, Betty Ho Siu-fong, said the group would apply to the Town Planning Board to categorise the mansion site as a "heritage" zone so the building would remain intact and retain its residential use.
"We respect the property owner's rights. But we just want more protection to preserve the building as there is still the uncertainty that King Yin Lei might not be declared a monument," she said.
An Antiquities and Monuments Office officer visited the mansion yesterday and carried out an inspection.
Architect Philip Liao Yi-kang, hired by Mr Yow more than a year ago for a survey of the building, believed restoration could be done.
3 Canopy may yet be built at cultural hub
Ng Kang-chung, SCMP 21 September 2007
A controversial idea that forced the government to shelve its original plan for the West Kowloon reclamation district has been revived.
Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen said last night that the government had not ruled out building a huge canopy atop the 40-hectare waterfront site at the southwestern tip of the Kowloon Peninsula, on which the government planned to develop an arts and cultural district.
But he was quick to add the issue would be decided by the proposed authority formed to manage the West Kowloon Cultural District.
Mr Tang said: "Whether there should be a canopy, how it should be built, or whether there should be a canopy on a smaller scale - we should leave this to the future [West Kowloon Cultural District] authority.
"We hope to set up the authority as soon as possible."
He was speaking after the first public forum, held at the Space Museum in Tsim Sha Tsui, on proposals released last week on how the long-delayed cultural district project should proceed. A three-month consultation began last week, almost 18 months after the original decision to award the project to a single developer and build a huge canopy as a landmark structure was abandoned amid fierce criticism.
When the new proposals were released, the giant canopy idea appeared to have been dropped.
But some of the 100 or so people who attended the forum expressed support for a huge canopy.
One said: "It is important to make the area all-weather, especially for street performances."
Some forum participants criticised the project as being a property development in disguise. Chu Hoi-dick, a core member of Local Action, said less than 40 per cent of the land would be for arts and cultural use.
Fellow activist Ho Loy said a discussion on a cultural district was academic when the government had not formulated a clear arts and cultural policy.
Two more forums are scheduled on October 24 at Tsuen Wan Town Hall and on October 29 at the Hong Kong Arts Centre.
