Mr CHAN Kin-por recognised that employers expressed stronger reservation towards the introduction of SWH in Hong Kong than the introduction of SMW. Apart from the potential increase in the wage bill, employers were particularly concerned about the need and flexibility to maintain adequate manpower to accomplish urgent and important tasks if working hours limits were set. Moreover, as shown from the experience in other SHW regimes, employers might adopt different strategies to offset higher labour costs, such as splitting full-time posts into part-time or casual jobs or creating more high-rank posts which were exempted from the SWH regime. Mr CHAN was of the view that full support of employers was crucial to the implementation of an SWH regime. In the light of the complexity of the nature of SWH, Mr CHAN called on the Administration to introduce appropriate measures to fully address the concerns of the employers and deliberate relevant issues thoroughly before taking forward the matter.
39. SLW assured members that the Administration fully recognised the need to examine the subject of SWH in-depth by the Government, employees, employers and the community at large before deciding on the way forward.