Workers climb scaffolding at Pok Fu Lam estate to demand four months of unpaid wages

Nearly 20 construction workers staged a protest at a Pok Fu Lam residential estate on Wednesday morning to demand payment of allegedly unpaid wages, with one worker climbing scaffolding outside the building, prompting firefighters to deploy an air cushion as a precaution.

Police said they received a report at 8.56am that a group of workers had gathered outside Blocks 25 to 27 of Baguio Villa on 555 Victoria Road to pursue back pay.

The workers said they had not been paid wages for the period from September to December last year. They displayed a white banner with red characters reading “worked with sweat, but no pay,” to voice their grievances. At one point, a worker even climbed onto external scaffolding attached to the building.

Police and firefighters arrived at the scene, and firefighters opened an air cushion beneath the scaffolding in case of a fall.

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According to the workers, more than 10 of those at the site have been owed wages since September, while dozens of other workers are also affected. The total amount involved is said to run into several million Hong Kong dollars. The affected trades include scaffolding workers and plumbers.

One worker said the estate had originally been undergoing major renovation works, but alleged that “the owners’ corporation has not paid a single cent to the contractor, nor to the main contractor, so the subcontractors below have no wages to pay.”

A resident of Block 27, however, complained that the workers were “causing trouble here because they did not get paid.”

He said the renovation project was managed by Prestige Construction & Engineering Company Limited, which was responsible for renovation work at the site of the fatal blaze in Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court, and that works were suspended following the tragedy.

He added that owners had held a meeting and agreed that outstanding payments owed to Prestige Construction & Engineering Company Limited should instead be paid directly to the workers.

Despite this, the workers continued to stage protests at the estate, the resident said.

“I’m worried they might fall from up there on the scaffolding. That would be a big problem,” he said, adding that each household had contributed about HK$300,000 toward the major renovation works.

Records show that both Baguio Villa and Wang Fuk Court had engaged Prestige Construction & Engineering Company Limited for their major renovation projects. After a five-alarm fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court, two company directors and an engineering consultant were arrested.

As the company’s two authorized signatories have since resigned, the company can no longer carry out building works under the Buildings Ordinance as a registered contractor, forcing multiple projects to be suspended.

On December 15 last year, nearly 40 scaffolding workers also went to Baguio Villa to demand wages for September to November, involving more than HK$1 million.

At the time, the Labour Department said it had received requests for assistance and had immediately contacted the relevant contractors and employers to help resolve the wage arrears.