More than 6,000 workers at HK isolation facilities ‘to become jobless’ as outbreak eases

May 9 ------ More than 6,000 workers at six of Hong Kong’s makeshift community isolation facilities are set to become jobless as authorities plan to suspend operations at the centres as early as next May 12 in response to the easing Covid-19 outbreak, lawmakers have revealed.

The legislators also called on the government to avoid the “largest one-day redundancy” in the city’s history by protecting the jobs of the workers by using the facilities to house cross-border truck drivers and arriving domestic helpers. “It would be the largest number of employees being fired on a single day in Hong Kong’s history and would further push up the city’s unemployment rate,” labour sector lawmaker Dennis Leung Tsz-wing said.

Leung said he had learned the Department of Health planned to wind down operations at the six community isolation facilities at Fanling, San Tin, Tam Mei, Hung Shui Kiu, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and Tsing Yi as early as May 12. He added that the sites could be relaunched if a sixth coronavirus wave emerged. The government had hired about 5,400 temporary cleaners and security guards to help at these facilities under contracts with a termination notice period of seven days, Leung said. The Security Bureau also hired about 1,000 people, including retirees from the disciplined services and employees deployed from other units, to provide logistical and telephone hotline services, he said.

The bureau already informed about 100 people that their jobs would be terminated, the lawmaker noted, saying he believed more employees would receive notices in the next few days. Leung said although staff knew their jobs were temporary when they were hired, they only began working in March and had expected to remain employed until at least June or July. With not enough vacancies in the job market to meet the demand created by such a large number of simultaneous redundancies, he said many temporary workers now felt hopeless. "Some had already experienced being jobless twice or even three times during the pandemic. They are really frustrated about the future," the legislator said.

A 32-year-old cleaner, who only gave her surname as Li, started working at the facility in Tam Mei on March 24 for HK$22,000 a month. The former clerk applied for the position after losing her job in early March. She said despite the infection risks, the job had helped her survive and that she was initially told by the person who interviewed her that she could work there until September. Though she learned earlier that the centre would be suspended on May 12, she said she was told on May 5 that she could continue working there until the end of this month. "I never expected to work for such a short amount of time and become jobless again. This arrangement is chaotic," she said. "Although it is a temporary job, it should not end this suddenly." Li urged the government to give workers such as her at least until the end of June to find new positions, as she believed the job market would improve by then. She also called on authorities to create more government jobs for the unemployed.

Leung urged authorities to save the workers' jobs by using the community isolation facilities as part of a closed-loop arrangement to house 1,000 to 2,000 cross-border truck drivers. He also said domestic helpers could also quarantine at the centres upon arriving in the city. "So we cannot only help cross-border drivers, as well as foreign domestic helpers, but also retain the jobs of the cleaners and security guards," he said.

Lawmaker Kingsley Wong Kwok, who also serves as chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, said jobs at the facilities had served as a "lifebuoy" for people who had become unemployed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The federation chairman urged authorities to provide such workers with a transitional period by retaining them until late May. "We hope the authorities could postpone the closure or cease operations gradually as the (second stage of) social-distancing measures were just relaxed," he told a radio programme. "When the economic situation has got better following the easing of social-distancing measures (in late May), it could bring the unemployed back to the (travelling, catering and retail) industries," he said, calling it a "better approach". He also advised the government to explore whether similar job positions were available for the affected workers.

In a reply to the Post, the Security Bureau said considering the latest pandemic situation, the government would only use one of the seven community isolation centres for cost efficiency, while putting the other facilities on standby in case a sixth wave emerged. According to a government source, authorities would continue using the facility in Penny's Bay, while the other six, which provide a total of 5,000 units, would be on standby. The source said the cleaners and security guards were hired by the Department of Health through property management company China Overseas Property Holdings Limited, while the bureau employed 1,600 temporary workers from the tourism and fitness industries to help with the daily operation and management of the facilities. He added that their contract would end between the middle and end of May but the bureau would renew it for 600 workers and let them continue working at the facilities, including those on standby.

A department spokesman said the number of workers at the community isolation facilities depended on the city's pandemic situation, the government's latest anti-epidemic measures and the occupancy rate at the centres. He said the department would communicate with the service contractor to ensure there was enough staff at the facilities.

Last week, city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said patients at seven makeshift community isolation facilities would be concentrated at two or three centres to save manpower due to a drop in coronavirus cases. The remaining sites will be put on standby to prepare for a possible sixth wave of infections. Hong Kong's unemployment rate climbed from 4.5 per cent during the December to February period to 5 per cent for the first three months of 2022, the highest in nine months. About 188,500 city residents were jobless during the latter period.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com