Hong Kong businesses urge dialogue and slow roll-out to Carrie Lam’s plans to boost number of statutory public holidays
- The change is one of 10 initiatives aimed at improving livelihood issues amid economic woes and anti-government unrest
- But business leaders say they were not consulted, and will be adversely affected
Stiff resistance to a government plan to introduce more statutory public holidays is building in Hong Kong’s business community, which was caught off guard by the announcement and wants a delay to its full roll-out as well as a consultation first.
Some stakeholders expressed concerns on Wednesday that while the government was helping them with a HK$25 billion package of relief measures amid an economic downturn, it would also impose a potential burden on employers by giving workers more days off.
Under it, the number of statutory holidays would jump to 17, benefiting blue-collar workers who only get 12 public holidays off each year. The city has 17 public holidays, but only 12 of those are currently statutory, meaning employers can choose not to give their staff the day off on the other five, so only white-collar workers tend to benefit.
Michael Leung Chun-wah, who owns four Chinese restaurants with about 300 staff, said the move would cost him about HK$1.5 million a year.