Mainland care workers to arrive in days: labour chief

Labour secretary Law Chi-kwong says temporary workers from the mainland will hopefully arrive in Hong Kong within days to ease a manpower shortage at care homes.

Speaking on a radio programme on Tuesday, Law noted half of the SAR’s care homes have reported Covid-19 cases, with a large number of staff either getting infected or having to be quarantined.

Around 1,000 mainland workers will arrive in batches to work in isolation and treatment facilities, as well as in residential care homes affected by the outbreak.

The workers don’t have to have previous relevant job experience, and will be employed on a three-month contract with a monthly salary of more than HK$30,000.

Law said there was no special recruitment criteria.

“They will be doing basic care work. But speaking Cantonese is very important, and because of this, there are some difficulties in recruitment, especially under Hong Kong’s current epidemic situation,” Law said.

“They can’t start work right after they arrive because most are without experience. When they arrive, they will have to receive around three days of training before they can work.”

The minister said, for example, the workers will have to learn how to feed elderly people who are bedridden.

The government had also eased requirements for the import of care workers under the Supplementary Labour Scheme for three months ending on May 31.

Care homes will be exempted from launching a four-week local recruitment before deciding to import workers, and each application no longer has to be circulated by the Labour Advisory Board for views.