On September 22, the fifth lecture of "2022 Global Flexible Employment Era and Expanding Social Protection Serial Lectures" was held online, which was organized by the CULR and co-organized by the Labor Relations Branch of the Chinese Association of Human Resource Development. Wong Kwok, Chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions was invited to make a presentation titled New Challenges and Opportunities of Labor Movement of the New Stage in Hong Kong. More than 210 scholars, experts, teachers and students inside and outside the CULR listened online.
In his lecture, Chairman Wong Kwok followed the historical transformation of labor relations in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and gave a detailed explanation of the four development stages of local labor relations, i.e. the stage of accumulation and outbreak of labor conflicts, the stage of legalization of labor relations, the political stage of labor relations and the new labor movement in the new era.
He emphasized that in the new stage labor movement is troubled by strong capital and weak labor forces in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, deteriorating quality of employment, widening wealth gap and other issues. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's Gini index rises to 0.539 and there are 1.6 million poverty-stricken workers, a large number of whom have to live in subdivided units. In addition, the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has a deeply-rooted economic governance concept of positive non-interventionism, so it is extremely difficult to strive for improvement of laborers' rights and welfare considering the overwhelming influence of business, political and economic communities. Therefore, the intrinsic governance concept of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and the situation of solidified interests need to be broken. He said that there have been significant changes in the composition of workers in Hong Kong, with increasingly diverse models and conditions of employment. The improving education background and diversified thinking of employees and the revolutionary change in interpersonal communication means also impose an impact upon the conventional working styles of trade unions, bringing new issues and challenges to the labor movement development in this region. The important speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping on July 1 clarifies the development of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the new stage, and injects new vitality into the new labor movement. With the promulgation and implementation of the Law of the PRC on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong SAR and the Improving Electoral System (Consolidated Amendments) Bill 2021, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has effectively adopted the policy of "patriots administering Hong Kong" and stepped into a new development stage of transitioning from chaos to orderly governance for prosperity. President Xi Jinping proposed that we must fully and faithfully implement the principle of “one country, two systems", uphold the central government’s overall jurisdiction while securing the SAR's high degree of autonomy, ensure that Hong Kong is administered by patriots, and maintain Hong Kong's distinctive status and advantages. Additionally, he pointed out that Hong Kong should further improve its governance, continue to create strong impetus for growth, and earnestly address people's concerns and difficulties in daily life, and the people of Hong Kong should work together to safeguard harmony and stability, which outline a new blueprint for the future of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and offer a new path to solve deep-seated contradictions. He noted that in the new era, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's labor movement should keep pace with the times, live up to the principles of "patriotism, solidarity, rights, benefits, participation", endeavor to achieve the proposition of "supporting laborers, working for grassroots and fighting for justice", and strengthen workers' rights and interests around the labor issues of "opportunity, compensation and protection". The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has made commitments to increase high-quality jobs, restrict job outsourcing and reinforce protection of occupational safety. In the future, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will actively develop new trade unions and seek innovative means of trade union work by enhancing online trade union work and improving the capabilities of trade union staff.
In the consultation session, Professor Yang Dongmei, Honorary Dean of the School of Labor Union and the School of Trade Union Cadres Training of the CULR gave impressive comments and responses to the lecture on the aspects of the challenges and opportunities of trade unions in the Chinese mainland, the latest progress of their work, the labor movement in the Chinese mainland, and the planning of trade union work, and made comparative analysis of the commonalities of trade union work between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. She expected that in the future trade unions in both the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region closely follow the trends of science and technology development, concentrate on new changes of workforces and labor relations and the new issues of trade union organizations, and have more exchanges and cooperation on trade union organizations and cadres.
In the interaction session, the attending audience had in-depth discussions with Chairman Wong Kwok on topics such as social security, collective bargaining and flexible employment in Hong Kong SAR.
(International Office of Cooperation and Exchange)
The Lecturer's Profile
Wong Kwok is the Chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and a member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.