Maternity bill to bypass normal Legco procedures

Legco voted to bypass the 'paralysed' House Committee to vet legislation to extend maternity leave, though the government promises not to circumvent procedures again for other bills. Photo: RTHK

Lawmakers have endorsed a government motion allowing a long-awaited bill to extend paid maternity leave from ten to 14 weeks to circumvent normal parliamentary procedures.



The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Law Chi-kwong, said it was necessary to have the bill processed by the Manpower Panel rather than through the normal route, via a dedicated subcommittee set up by the House Committee, because the House Committee was “in paralysis” and could not deal with bills normally.



Pan-democrats have for months been filibustering proceedings of the influential agenda-setting body in a bid to pressure the government to accept the five core demands of the protest movement, resulting in the repeated failure of the committee to even choose a chairperson.



The motion to bypass the normal procedure was passed by a vote of 38-20 with 1 abstention.



In an attempt to dispel concerns raised by pan-democratic lawmakers, Law said the government has no more plans to bypass normal parliamentary procedures on other bills.



Pro-democracy lawmakers have warned that the motion sets a bad precedent and damages Legco’s established mechanism in dealing with proposed legislation.



But pro-government lawmakers are focused on getting the bill passed by the end of the current Legco term, as failure to do so means the government would have to start the process from scratch.



The chairman of the manpower panel, Jonathan Ho from the Federation of Trade Unions, says more meetings will be scheduled, and even lawmakers who aren’t members of the panel are welcome to join in vetting the bill.



Fellow FTU legislator Alice Mak urged her pan-democratic rivals to “respect the rights of all the women employees… and allow this bill to be passed as soon as possible.”