School worker and organizer, Chan Chim Yuk, hands over scales symbolizing the imbalance in the wages & benefits of school clerks and janitors compared to teaching staff.

Under proposals put forward by the Education Department, non-teaching workers in government 'aided' schools face a serious threat to their job and income security. 'Aided schools' are non-profit, private schools that receive government subsidies. They make up over 70% of primary and secondary schools, which means that the proposed reforms will affect the majority of non-teaching school workers, especially school clerks and cleaners.

The main thrust of the reforms involves "de-linking" the wages and increments of workers in aided schools from the current government sector scale. In future, promotions and wage increments will no longer be based on the public sector scale, but will be solely determined by the managerial decisions taken by school principals. School principals will be given the right to determine wage levels, increments, and other allowances, as well as having the power to hire and fire school workers. Unionists argue that school principals will effectively act like private sector employers under the new scheme.

Workers fear that once these reforms are in place they will face significant wage cuts and job losses. School janitors currently earning the highest pay scale of HK$10,400 per month will be replaced with newly-hired workers earning HK$5,000 or less. At the same, many school principals will seek to contract-out these jobs to private companies, especially cleaning services.

On May 5, a protest rally was held by school workers to oppose the changes. They demanded that plans for "de-linking" be dropped, and opposed future pay-cuts and contracting-out.

Shortly after the protest action a 16-member preparatory union committee of school workers was formed, and it now plans to establish a new union: the Hong Kong School Clerks and Janitors General Union. Ultimately union organizers aim to fight for the re-institution of the government scale system, and in the longer-term will struggle to achieve a collective agreement covering all school workers in the territory's aided and government schools.