The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions has claimed in statements to the local media that a number of companies have chosen to reduce staff by stealth to avoid attention of the public or trade unions.
According to the HKFTU the majority of offenders are banks, hotels, and airlines. HKFTU handled 1,047 labor disputes in 2008: an increase of 42% compared with 2007. Ye Weiming, a director from HKFTU, revealed that most of these disputes involved the service industry and manufacturing industry.
In addition, HKFTU received 13,135 telephone inquiries in 2008, an increase 20% over 2007. Most of these telephone inquiries were said to be made about termination payments, with a total of 1,026 for the year, of which 436 were made between October and December, accounting for more than 42% of the total. This indicates that many companies had began to cut jobs to control costs following the financial crisis.
Ye said that many companies cut jobs on a weekly basis or monthly basis to prevent the cuts being noticed by the public and to avoid creating a negative image for themselves. Ye called on employees to be alert and take care when signing any documents with their employers in case they are paid less upon dismissal. He also asked employers not to shift the burden of the decreased profits onto their employees.
