On January 8, 2002, the Government Employees Solidarity Union organised a protest over the contracting out of public services. Contract workers employed by private companies holding tenders for street cleaning from the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) (see Union Action December 2001, page 4), staged the protest action outside the Central Government Offices. Wearing masks to hide their identities for fear of retribution by private contracting companies, they demanded direct employment by the government. The workers put forward three demands:

(1) The government must stop contracting out public services and workers already employed by private contractors must eventually be directly employed by the government;

(2) The government must strictly supervise existing contract companies and enforce the labour law;

(3) Those companies violating the labour law must be punished and in the worst cases contracts must be canceled.

Despite 422 reported cases of violations by contract companies last year, less than half were reprimanded and none lost their contracts.

Also see> Union Action December 2001: "Dirty business: The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department Cuts Public Sector Jobs, Exploits Contract Workers"