Editing Working time (section)

====Political parties====
On 17–18 October 2012, the [[Legislative Council of Hong Kong|Legislative Council]] members in Hong Kong debated on the motion "legislation for the regulation of working hours". [[Cheung Kwok-che]] proposed the motion "That is the Council urges the Government to introduce a bill on the regulation of working hours within this legislative session, the contents of which must include the number of standard weekly hours and overtime pay".<ref>[http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr12-13/english/counmtg/agenda/cm20121017.htm Council Meeting (Agenda) 17 October 2012] Legislative Council Commission, HKSARG, retrieved on 2012-12-10</ref> As the motion was not passed by both [[functional constituencies]] and [[geographical constituencies]], it was negatived.<ref>[http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr12-13/chinese/counmtg/voting/v20121017.pdf Voting Results] Legislative Council Commission, HKSARG, retrieved on 2012-12-10</ref>

The [[Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions]] suggested a standard 44-hour work week with overtime pay of 1.5 times the usual pay. It believes the regulation of standard working hour can prevent the employers to force employees to work (overtime) without pay.<ref>[http://www.singpao.com/xw/gat/201210/t20121010_394008.html {{in lang|zh}} 工聯會宣布十大工作重點] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616200611/http://www.singpao.com/xw/gat/201210/t20121010_394008.html |date=2013-06-16 }} 香港成報，2012-10-10</ref>

[[Elizabeth Quat]] of the [[Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong]] (DAB), believed that standard working hours were a labor policy and was not related to family-friendly policies. The Vice President of Young DAB, Wai-hung Chan, stated that standard working hours would bring limitations to small and medium enterprises. He thought that the government should discuss the topic with the public more before legislating standard working hours.

The [[Democratic Party (Hong Kong)|Democratic Party]] suggested a 44-hour standard work week and compulsory overtime pay to help achieve the balance between work, rest and entertainment of people in Hong Kong.<ref>[http://www.dphk.org/?p=11568 {{in lang|zh}} 民主黨2011/12施政報告建議書 捍衛核心價值 縮窄貧富懸殊 | 民主黨] 民主黨，2011-10-11</ref>

The [[Labour Party (Hong Kong)|Labour Party]] believed regulating working hours could help achieve a work–life balance.<ref>[http://www.labour.org.hk/policy-zh/labour-zh.html {{in lang|zh}} 勞工 – 工黨 Labour Party] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419034903/http://www.labour.org.hk/policy-zh/labour-zh.html |date=2012-04-19 }} 工黨，2012</ref> It suggests an 8-hour work day, a 44-hour standard work week, a 60-hour maximum work week and an overtime pay of 1.5 times the usual pay.<ref name="lpsurvey">[http://cheungchiuhung.org.hk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/workhoursurvey.pdf {{in lang|zh}} 工黨「父親節」工時問卷調查報告] 工黨，2012-06-17</ref>

[[Poon Siu-ping]] of [[Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions]] thought that it is possible to set work hour limit for all industries; and the regulation on working hours can ensure the overtime payment by employers to employees, and protect employees' health.

The [[Civic Party|Civic party]] suggests "to actively study setting weekly standard working hours at 44 hours to align with family-friendly policies" in LegCo Election 2012.<ref>[http://lc2012.civicparty.hk/?page_id=1400 Social welfare and livelihood] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130412221442/http://lc2012.civicparty.hk/?page_id=1400 |date=2013-04-12 }} Civic Party LegCo Election 2012, retrieved on 2012-11-12</ref>

Member of [[Economic Synergy]], Jeffery Lam, believes that standard working hours would adversely affect productivity, tense the employer-employee relationship, and increase the pressure faced by businesses who suffer from inadequate workers. He does not support the regulation on working hours at its current situation.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20150909023614/http://www.economicsynergy.org/speak_detail.php?type=1&id=284 {{in lang{{!}}zh}} 盡快落實制訂標準工時]}} 林健鋒，2011-06-23</ref>

=====Government=====
[[Matthew Cheung Kin-chung]], the Secretary for [[Labour and Welfare Bureau]], said the [[Executive Council of Hong Kong|Executive Council]] has already received the government report on working hours in June, and the Labour Advisory Board and the LegCo's Manpower Panel will receive the report in late November and December respectively.<ref>[http://www.chinadailyapac.com/article/legco-rejects-standard-work-hours-proposal LegCo rejects standard work hours proposal] China Daily, 2012-10-19</ref> On 26 November 2012, the Labour Department released the report, and the report covered the regimes and experience of practicing standard working hours in selected regions, current work hour situations in different industries, and the impact assessment of standard working hours. Also, Matthew Cheung mentioned that the government will form a select committee by first quarter of 2013, which will include government officials, representative of labor unions and employers' associations, academics and community leaders, to investigate the related issues. He also said that it would "perhaps be unrealistic" to put forward a bill for standard working hours in the next one to two years.<ref>[http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1064321/city-digest-october-19-2012 City Digest, October 19,2012] SCMP, 2012-10-19</ref>

=====Academics=====
Yip Siu-fai, Professor of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of [[HKU]], has noted that professions such as nursing and accountancy have long working hours and that this may affect people's social life. He believes that standard working hours could help to give Hong Kong more family-friendly workplaces and to increase fertility rates. Randy Chiu, Professor of the Department of Management of [[HKBU]], has said that introducing standard working hours could avoid excessively long working hours of employees.<ref>[http://www.hket.com/eti/article/46c86e63-2be2-43f2-abdd-ab3d16735d46-609976?cgs=&source=print&printable=true {{in lang|zh}} 標準工時雖動聽 政治現實恐難容] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130526153713/http://www.hket.com/eti/article/46c86e63-2be2-43f2-abdd-ab3d16735d46-609976?cgs=&source=print&printable=true |date= 2013-05-26 }} HKET, 2012-02-27</ref> He also said that nowadays Hong Kong attains almost full employment, has a high rental price and severe inflation, recently implemented minimum wage, and is affected by a gloomy global economy; he also mentioned that comprehensive considerations on macroeconomic situations are needed, and emphasized that it is perhaps inappropriate to adopt working-time regulation as exemplified in other countries to Hong Kong.<ref>{{YouTube|A09eFz59Sq0|城市論壇 標準工時徵建議 勞資官民齊集思}} {{in lang|zh}}</ref>

Lee Shu-Kam, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics and Finance of [[HKSYU]], believes that standard working hours cannot deliver "work–life balance". He referenced the research{{which|date=October 2018}} to the US by the University of California, Los Angeles in 1999 and pointed out that in the industries and regions in which the wage elasticity is low, the effects of standard working hours on lowering actual working time and increasing wages is limited: for regions where the labor supply is inadequate, standard working hours can protect employees' benefits yet cause unemployment; but for regions (such as Japan) where the problem does not exist, standard working hours would only lead to unemployment.<ref name="skbook">Lee, S.K. et al. 2012. Standard Working Hours or Flexible Working Hours – Policy alternatives to facilitate Work–Life Balance, Hong Kong: Ovis Press.</ref>

Francis Lui, Head and Professor of the Department of Economics of [[Hong Kong University of Science and Technology]], believed that standard working hours may not lower work time but increase unemployment. He used Japan as an example to illustrate that the implementation of standard working hours lowered productivity per head and demotivated the economy. He also said that even if the standard working hours can shorten employees' weekly working hours, they may need to work for more years to earn sufficient amount of money for [[retirement]], i.e. delay their retirement age. The total working time over the course of a lifetime may not change.<ref name="luiact">[http://francis-lui.blogspot.hk/2010/12/blog-post_2373.html {{in lang|zh}}「標準工時」會否僵化勞動市場？] 雷鼎鳴，2010-12-08</ref>

In 2012, Lok-sang Ho, Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies of [[Lingnan University (Hong Kong)|Lingnan University]], pointed out that "as different employees perform various jobs and under different degrees of pressures, it may not be appropriate to establish standard working hours in Hong Kong"; and he proposed a 50-hour maximum work week to protect workers' health.<ref>
[http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-11/20/content_15944513.htm Business / Opinion Setting maximum work hours first]. ''China Daily'', 2012-11-20.
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