HONG KONG: The strike by employees of Watsons Water carries on, after talks between the company and its delivery assistants again ended in deadlock yesterday. The union has vowed to continue the strike until the company meets a demand for increased commissions.

About 60 delivery assistants staged a protest outside company headquarters yesterday morning, for the second consecutive day. Representatives from the Labour Department are attempting to mediate between the employer and employees.

Union pickets blocked entrances to the company's factory, attempting to obstruct departing water delivery vehicles at around noon. Watsons said most of its trucks had already left on their routes, so there was no significant impact as a result of the pickets.

The two parties entered a new round of negotiations in the afternoon, but talks broke down again.

After a meeting lasting more than five hours, management decided to scrap its practice of assigning five delivery workers to each truck, effective August 24.

"We are very sincere about settling the dispute. This is a great concession, as we originally planned to phase the practice out in a month," said Watsons's director of corporate communications & PR, Malina Ngai, last night.

The commission for each worker is 48 cents per bottle if the delivery is assisted by four people.

However, the workers still are not satisfied. They're demanding a standardized commission of 48 HK cents per bottle of water.

On Wednesday the company promised to raise the commission by three to four percent and gradually phase out the practice of assigning five delivery assistants per truck. The labor union refused to accept the offer.

"The company promised to scrap the six or five deliverymen system last year, but it didn't after one year. The workers just want the company to honor its promise," said lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan, who is also the general secretary of Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions.

The workers on strike constitute only 20 percent of all delivery staff and the rest are satisfied with Watsons's offer.

Meanwhile, Watsons started recruiting temporary delivery assistants yesterday.

The company advertisement said the recruitment is to "cope with the immediate needs of the business" and remuneration is also close to market standard. The temporary workers will be contracted for one month. Ngai emphasized the summer hires are not intended as replacement workers. However, she added the strike did affect company operations to some extent.

Watsons's staff staged several protests last year and early this year. The dispute last July was settled after the company agreed to most demands, including raising commissions and limiting working hours.

(HK Edition 08/07/2009 page1)