The government will proceed with minimum-wage legislation despite the financial turmoil, and it plans to introduce a draft bill before July, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung said yesterday.

The government has moved to introduce the legislation across the board after the failure of the Wage Protection Movement to protect the wages of cleaning workers and security guards.

At a meeting of the Legislative Council's Panel on Manpower, lawmakers were concerned about whether the recent financial turmoil will affect the legislation work for minimum wage.

Legislator Wong Kwok-hing asked whether the government will suspend legislation work because of the financial turmoil.

Legislator Lee Cheuk-yan said he hopes the wage won't be fixed at a low level or the legislation could not help the poor.

Cheung said: "I don't think it (the financial turmoil) will have any effect on what we are doing. We will be proceeding with legislation".

A Minimum Wage Commission will be formed early next year to set the wage level.

The Commission will be formed by representatives from the business and labor sectors, and academia and government officials.

While the government is drafting the bill, Cheung said, some controversial issues have to be addressed.

For example: whether wage should include commission, and whether minimum wage should be applied to domestic helpers and people with disabilities.

Commissioner for Labour Cherry Tse said the government will send two focus groups this and next month to understand the views of the disability groups concerned.

The government will introduce a new wage survey to gather data across all sectors, and results are expected by the end of next year to early 2010.

Legislators also expressed concern that the new chief labor officer post, which will be created to help with the introduction of a minimum wage, might not have enough authority to deal with business leaders.

Legislator Frederick Fung said it'd be better for an assistant commissioner to oversee the minimum-wage legislation than an officer.

Legislator Lam Tai-fai asked whether experienced persons in the area could be found in Hong Kong to undertake the job.

Cheung said he is not worried about the authority of the officer, as Cheung plans to attend the high-level meetings.

Tse said they will learn from overseas experience for the legislation of a minimum wage, adding that the officer will work under an assistant commissioner.

(HK Edition 11/21/2008 page1)