HONG KONG: Chambers of commerce and traders in real estate called on authorities yesterday to give a clear definition for the term "hours worked" in the pending minimum wage legislation. Employers are concerned that if the terms are not spelled out they might unwittingly fall into traps that could have them up before a judge.

The concerns were raised at yesterday's meeting of the Legislative Council (LegCo)'s Bills Committee on the Minimum Wage Bill.

Some 70 representatives of labor unions, migrant workers' groups, business chambers and other concern groups set out their views for the first time, during an eight-hour meeting.

Tim Peirson-Smith, the chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said, "the minimum wage legislation needs to be clear and, at the moment, the definition of 'hours worked' is confusing and must be clarified."

He also said the proposed ways to assess the productivity of people with disabilities under the minimum wage regime are unclear and inefficient.

Duncan Abate, the chairman of the Employment Law Committee of the Law Society, said, "On the definition of 'hours worked' as currently drafted, we are very confident that this will result in substantial litigation, which may be good news for lawyers but we don't think that will be necessarily good news for Hong Kong."

In the current bill pending the LegCo's approval, "hours worked" include any time in which the employee is on duty at the workplace, no matter whether he is assigned any work or given training at that time.

It also proposed to include work-related travel time outside Hong Kong.

Li Shun-hok, the chairman of the Real Estate Agencies General Association, said some workers in the trade tend to stay behind in the office to wait for clients to bring them to flats for rent or sale.

He said it will be arguable whether the waiting time should be considered "hours worked" when the legislation is in force.

Lee Chung-ming, the vice president of the Chamber of Professional Property Consultants, said it is common for real estate agencies to hire trainees not yet with licenses so as to provide them with learning experiences.

He said he fears that some firms will cut the number of trainee positions or prefer not to hire any.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said he believes that some have worries about the definition of "hours worked" as they are unclear about the bill.

He said learners under the Apprenticeship Ordinance will be excluded from the proposed minimum wage law.

Concerns were also raised in the meeting on the proposal to require employers to keep records of employees' number of hours worked.

Cheung said he is open to different ideas and will continue to seek public views.

Meanwhile, groups of live-in domestic helpers continued to urge the government to include them in the proposed minimum wage law.

They said the plan to rule them out is discriminatory and unfair.

But Cheung reiterated that it will be difficult to ascertain the actual hours worked of live-in domestic helpers.

He said their benefits already are well-protected, for example, by the current minimum allowable wage of HK$3,580 a month.

(HK Edition 10/08/2009 page1)