Supermarket subsidies trigger heated debate

Some listeners who called into an RTHK program grilled the Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong over a government plan to pay subsidies to the two leading supermarket chains, saying they should be providing the funds directly to the employees and not employers.
But Law defended the broader arrangement of handing anti-epidemic subsidies to bosses, saying the government would not be able to process the subsidy all the applications by 2021 if they had to deal directly with two million workers instead of 100,000 employers.
The supermarkets discount scheme in particular has been heavily criticised by figures in both pro-democracy and pro-establishment camps, saying it benefits employers and not workers. The critics also pointed out that the supermarket business has not been greatly affected during the pandemic, and some even increased their sales.
Law told the program that the two big supermarket chains may not have been seriously affected by the pandemic but it was too complicated to put conditions on subsidies. He said he hoped other supermarkets might follow suit in cutting prices when the two dominant firms take the lead to offer discounts.
One caller, surnamed Chiu, took issue with Law's comments that other supermarkets will follow the big two’s lead, asking him if he went to school and understood the concept of economies of scale.
"Why are you going through the employers? Give the subsidies to the workers! Your job retention scheme is just aiming to make your employment figures look nicer, you are not helping workers," she said.
Law said dealing directly with each employer was time consuming and that is why funds are being handed over to employers.
The purpose of the job retention scheme was to maintain the relationship between the employers and employees, and that they had to keep it simple, he said.
Law  said that when the coronavirus situation improves, the economy will stabilise and recover.
He added that if the workers are subsidized but the employer is unable to operate, it won't stop job losses.