HONG KONG (SE): “I am happy to know people from the labour commission. When I faced the biggest trial and was in need of support the most, you were here for me,” said a cleaning worker in a video posted on the Facebook page of the Hong Kong Catholic Commission for Labour Affairs on May 1 to mark its 30th anniversary.
In the video, prepared by the Diocesan Pastoral Centre for Workers on Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Territories, members of the pastoral centres, cleaning workers and people from South Asian countries wished the commission a happy anniversary.
Set up on 15 February 1991, the commission concerned itself with various labour issues and carried out the Church’s mission of being a prophet and a servant as mentioned in the 1989 pastoral exhortation of John Baptist Cardinal Wu Cheng-chung, March into the Bright Decade: on the Pastoral Commitment of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong.
To mark the occasion, former and current members of the commission visited workers in Sheung Shui, Fanling and North Point, and distributed daily necessities as well as virus prevention resources. Parishioners from St. Jude’s parish and members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul joined them in North Point. An annual general meeting was then held at the Diocesan Pastoral Centre for Workers in the New Territories.
The commission, together with the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, wrote a joint statement for International Labour Day calling on the government to provide unemployment subsidies, set a minimum wage level based on the living standards of Hong Kong, and to list Covid-19 as an occupational disease under the Employees Compensation Ordinance.
Father Dominic Chan Chi-ming, the first and the second chairperson of the commission, said in a video interview on April 30 that it had not been easy to set up the commission. He recalled that 30 years ago, there were already a number of labour groups in Hong Kong with different principles fighting for labour rights so more communication was needed when they worked together.
‘Looking back at the past figures, there were around 750,000 blue-collar workers in Hong Kong 30 years ago. But the number of factory workers was gradually decreasing as many factories moved to China… Now the commission is concerned about security guards, cleaning workers, as well as workers in other fields’
Father Dominic Chan
He remembered that it was not easy to look for locations to set up the three pastoral centres either. He said the target of the commission’s services evolved over time as well. “Looking back at the past figures, there were around 750,000 blue-collar workers in Hong Kong 30 years ago. But the number of factory workers was gradually decreasing as many factories moved to China… Now the commission is concerned about security guards, cleaning workers, as well as workers in other fields,” he recounted.
Father Chan encouraged the commission to serve workers in practical and creative ways that fit their needs.
Father Benedict Lam Cho-ming, who has been supporting the commission’s activities, noted in another video interview that the it was set up in response to Gaudium et Spes (The Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World) from the Second Vatican Council, which encourages the Church to identity itself with the “joys and the hopes, the grief and the anxieties” of the people of this age.
He said that the commission has done many things for the neglected, such as outsourced cleaning workers, security guards as well as South Asian minorities who have problems being accepted by society.
He remembered that during a meal gathering with workers, they sang a song with lyrics they themselves had written which said that they should be treated the same as any one else as they have human dignity, feelings and their own families.
“This is what the labour commission works hard to promote, that all professions are equal,” Father Lam said.
“Here I would like to thank the commission for journeying with the people of Hong Kong for 30 years and to have been both prophet and servant for the Church. I wish it a happy 30th anniversary!” he said.
