1 Construction firm agrees to pay off protesting bar benders
Colleen Lee, SCMP 18 November 2008

Bar benders and union activists protest outside Prince of Wales Hospital over unpaid wages. The firm agreed to pay wages in lieu. Photo: David Wong Source: SCMP

More than a dozen construction workers laid off last week by a subcontractor protested yesterday outside a building site in Sha Tin demanding unpaid wages and payment in lieu of notice.

The protest ended in the afternoon when the contractor - Hsin Chong-Yau Lee Joint Venture - agreed to immediately pay November wages of all 57 workers who had been laid off. The protesters were bar benders working for subcontractor Wai Ming. The Confederation of Trade Unions said the bar benders had been laid off last Saturday after Hsin Chong-Yau Lee, which is building an extension to the Prince of Wales Hospital, decided to end its contract with Wai Ming.

The bar benders - skilled workers who cut, bend and fix the iron bars that form the shell of a building - said they had been informed of the layoffs on Saturday afternoon, but their November wages and payments in lieu of notice had not been paid.

Wai Ming's executive manager Chiu Cheuk-wai said he was unaware that his company had to pay seven days' wages in lieu of notice because of the sudden termination of employment. Workers who are sacked without prior notice after working for an employer for at least four weeks and 18 hours each week are normally entitled to wages in lieu of notice subject to conditions in the contract.

After negotiations with the Labour Department, Mr Chiu yesterday pledged to pay by December 3 the seven days' wages in lieu of notice to 40 workers who had worked for at least four weeks.

Hsin Chong-Yau Lee agreed to give each of the other 17 workers who had worked at the site for less than four weeks 3-1/2 days' wages.