Grassroots workers oppose labour imports: poll
A survey by a community group has found that the vast majority of local workers are worried that an expanded labour importation scheme will affect their livelihoods.  The Society for Community Organisation (SoCO) surveyed around 200 people online in recent weeks and found that nine out of ten were worried that their jobs would be affected.  Three-quarters of respondents were against the scheme, saying the government should set import quotas for the non-skilled jobs. The government announced in June that it plans to hire up to 20,000 non-local construction and transport workers and temporarily lift an import ban for two years on workers with 26 job types, including waiters, salespersons and clerks, in a bid to ease manpower shortages.  "The respondents are afraid there'd be many people coming to Hong Kong to work, and they'd lose their jobs," a deputy director with SoCO, Sze Lai-shan, told RTHK. "They don't agree there's a shortage of unskilled workers." Sze said that according to the government's own projections, what Hong Kong needs most are highly skilled workers. She said officials should set an overall import quota for each of the 26 occupations and limit the number of imports each company can make. While officials plan to review the policy in two years' time, Sze said it should be done every six or 12 months. And more should be done to make better use of local talent, she said, such as doubling the subsidy for the Continuing Education Fund to HK$50,000.