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A telephone survey was conducted from 20 to 22 April 2015 by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong to gauge public views on working hours legislation in Hong Kong.  761 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 44.6%.  The sampling error is + or –3.55% at a confidence level of 95%.

Major findings are summarized as follows:

In the current survey, the respondents were asked about their views on the stipulations of hours of work, overtime arrangements, and overtime compensation in employment contracts proposed by the Standard Working Hours Committee in March 2015.  While three-fifth of the 761 respondents (60.7%) agreed with this proposal, 10.4% disagreed and 22.9% reported “in-between”.  They were also asked about their opinion of introducing standard working hours legislation on top of the aforementioned proposal of the Committee.  Half of the respondents (49.7%) found the legislation necessary and 21.4% said the opposite.  22.7% indicated “in-between”.  The Committee’s proposal was criticized as being unable to protect the rights of employees given their disadvantaged position in the employment relations and employment contracts.  44.2% of the respondents agreed with this criticism, 23.0% disagreed, and 27.6% answered “in-between”.

Concerning the details of proposed standard working hours legislation, over one-half of the respondents (56.7%) believed that it would be infeasible to impose standard working hours legislation across-the-board and 33.4% thought otherwise.  The former group of respondents was further asked whether they would change their mind and find the legislation feasible should some flexibilities be allowed (such as introducing tailor-made working hours systems for certain industries or work nature).  70.5% of these 431 respondents would then consider it feasible and 23.2% indicated the opposite.  Overall, 40.0% of the total 760 respondents thought that standard working hours legislation would be feasible only when flexibility arrangements are applied, 33.4% said that the legislation would be feasible in any case, and 13.2% saw it feasible under no circumstance.  

Among those who found the legislation could be imposed across-the-board, 31.9% wanted a weekly limit of 40 hours or less, 31.9% preferred a limit between 41 and 44 hours per week, 26.0% opted for a weekly range of 45-48 hours, and 3.9% chose 49 hours or more per week. 

Regarding their perception of working hours among people in Hong Kong, while three-fifth (59.1%) of the respondents agreed that long working hours prevailed, 11.6% disagreed and a quarter (25.6%) answered “in-between”.