Workers, subcontractors on Hong Kong airport’s third runway project owed HK$100 million in unpaid wages and costs, lawmaker says
- Lawmaker Edward Lau urges Airport Authority to respond in the next two days to demands of workers and subcontractors involved in labour dispute
- Demands include ensuring all workers are paid before leaving project and for the authority to negotiate dispute over project costs between subcontractors and main contractor
Some 200 workers and six subcontractors involved in building a new terminal for Hong Kong International Airport’s planned third runway are owed nearly HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) in overdue wages and project costs, a lawmaker has said amid an ongoing labour row.
Edward Lau Kwok-fan, a lawmaker with the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and a mediator in the dispute, on Wednesday urged the Airport Authority to respond in the next two days to the demands of the workers and subcontractors, including paying the outstanding amounts.
The authority on Tuesday, however, said it had settled the payments with the main contractor and ordered it to handle the issue with subcontractors properly.
More than 100 staff employed by the main contractor, a joint venture partnership between Leighton Asia and Chun Wo, launched a sit-in on Tuesday morning, claiming they were still owed wages after completing their work for the authority.
Leighton Asia-Chun Wo was in charge of foundation and substructure works for a new terminal that will serve the new runway, with a contract valued at HK$2.43 billion in 2017.
Workers were required to leave the site after the contract expired. However, Lau said they had yet to receive their full pay, while the subcontractors who managed the workers had still not been paid for their project costs.
Some of the subcontractors had paid the workers themselves, as Leighton Asia-Chun Wo did not pay them on time, he added.
