On Monday's Backchat, we look into proposals to enhance the protection of part-time workers. 

Under the current mechanism, employees working at least 18 hours per week and employed for more than a month are entitled to a range of benefits offered to full-time workers including paid annual leave, rest days and sickness allowances. 

However, some employers are believed to arrange their part-time employees' schedules in a way that purposely falls short of the 18 hours weekly requirement.

In response, the Labour Department has suggested lowering the qualifying threshold by entitling employees who work 72, 68, 64 or 60 hours in four weeks to all statutory benefits, regardless of how many hours they work in a single week. 

Would this move better protect part-time workers? How about freelancers? And would extra operational costs place a burden on businesses? 

After 9:45, we look into ways to cut down accidents involving pedestrians.


9:05am-9:45am: Protection of part-time workers

9:05am-9:45am: Roy Ying, Co-Chairperson, Advocacy and Policy Research Committee, Hong Kong Institute of Human Resources Management
9:05am-9:30am: Lam Chun-sing, Lawmaker, The Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions
9:30am-9:45am: Michael Szeto, Partner, ONC Lawyers