In Depth back to UNI In Depth home page 06/02/2003 Solidarity with workers at Telecom company PCCW in Hong Kong UNI's affiliates in Hong Kong seek your support for their demand that Telecom giant PCCW immediately fully fund their retirement scheme. There is a shortfall of over HK$1.1 billion and the company is in a position where the scheme can be shut down without meeting the company obligations. Members would loose about 25% of their retirement lump sum entitlements. The concern has arisen after PCCW unilaterally froze the defined benefit scheme and converted all to a defined contribution (accumulation) scheme. About 1000 staff have held a one day strike to protest the decision. Background information Hong Kong's national carrier, HK Telecom, was sold to Mr Li in 2000 and became known as PCCW. Li created enormous debt over the company, made poor decisions and the share price collapsed. Staff are now being asked to prop up the incompetent management decisions. Many sackings have occurred. One of the most Draconian actions in the Telecom Industry has shamed PCCW. In January this year, PCCW forced 3,500 employees to resign and join a subsidiary company, Cascade, with pay cuts generally of 15-20%. The other option for staff was to be sacked, without redundancy payments. See a detailed report at http://apro.techno.net.au/apt478.htm PCCW is the same company that was reportedly interested in buying Britain's Cable & Wireless a few months ago. Appeal for action Please send a letter of protest to PCCW. UNI has attached a draft but please edit as you wish. Also please send a copy to UNI headquarters and to our affiliate in Hong Kong. Draft protest letter Mr. Richard Li CEO PCCW Limited 14/F, Telecom Tower, 979 Kings Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong Fax: +852 2962 5666 Nyon, 2 June 2003 Dear Mr Li, Respect - for your workers Union Network International (UNI), the global union representing over 15 million union members in over 900 unions in 140 countries worldwide, would like to express itsr grave concerns at the well being and treatment of your staff. We have been briefed on the Draconian actions you took to force staff to either resign, or join Cascade this year, on much worse employment conditions. Now we have been briefed on your failure to meet your obligations to fully fund the staff retirement scheme. We have witnessed a number of collapses of Telecom companies around the world. We have seen incompetence, fraud, greed and immoral activity in these companies. We also see workers losing their retirement benefits and we will not let this happen again, without global union action. The media reports that your company has made some poor management decisions, but the workers should not be forced to carry the burden for these decisions. We find your company's actions intolerable. Workers are entitled to respect. They choose unions to represent them, and this decision must also be respected. We note that the fund deficit is HK$1,112 million, while your company EBITDA in 2002 was HK$8,120 million. Respect and security for your workers is readily achievable. We fully support the desire of PCCW workers to have your company meet its obligations and immediately fund fully, the retirement scheme. We urge that their unions be consulted. In our view, your obligation to these workers is paramount. We look forward to your early positive response. Yours sincerely Philip Jennings General Secretary cc: PCCWSA, Fax: +852 2568 8947 UNI HQ, Fax: +41 22 3652121 ______________________ Union Network International http://www.union-network.org - contact@union-network.org