‘Tsunami-like’ surge in applications to form unions puts ‘enormous pressure’ on authorities, Hong Kong labour minister says
- Law Chi-kwong says the government will continue to fulfil duties under the national security law and deregister any unions that do not comply with local laws
- About 80 per cent, or 3,450 of 4,289 applications filed last year, are yet to be processed, he says
The Labour Department’s Registry of Trade Unions received 1,578 applications for new associations in the first quarter of last year, Law said. This compares with just 16 applications received over the same period in 2018, before anti-government protests erupted the following year.
The massive surge in applications put “an enormous pressure” on the authority, he said, noting about 80 per cent, or 3,450 of 4,289 applications filed last year, had yet to be processed.
He warned the organisations must stick to the city’s laws or face the consequences.
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“When registered unions breach the Trade Unions Ordinance, the Registry of Trade Unions will follow it up and will not rule out cancelling the affiliation,” he said.
Law also said the Labour Department had a duty to strengthen public communication, guidance, supervision and regulation of social organisations over matters concerning national security.
Authorities would take measures to promote national security awareness among the directors and employees of trade unions, he said.
“We can’t mobilise 100 times more manpower to handle the tsunami-like increase in applications. We can only work in the middle ground by reorganising limited internal resources,” he said. “But we will step up law enforcement to ensure every union abides by the Trade Unions Ordinance.”
Law said the number of registered trade unions had increased by 54 per cent, from 917 at the end of 2019 to 1,410 at the end of last year.
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Instead of proposing economic demands as conventional unions did, many of these new groups have called for an investigation into alleged police brutality against protesters and for defence of residents’ rights and freedoms.
But some groups became inactive amid fears of retaliation by the government under the security law that came into force on June 30 last year. The law criminalises acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
The labour minister said some 247 applications were withdrawn in 2020 alone.
In January, the Union for New Civil Servants, which organised a mass rally in 2019, was disbanded as its members failed to take a mandatory loyalty pledge.
