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Source: Provisional Legislative Council Panel on Manpower (Hong Kong)
The HKSAR Provisional Legislative Council Panel on Manpower has released the minutes of the meeting held on Monday, 23 March 1998, which reported on the recent consultation exercise on the deletion of two existing public holidays to be replaced by the new general public holidays of Labour Day and Buddha's Birthday.
The consultation was carried among 36 major employer and employee organisations, representative bodies within the financial services sector, and representatives of major religions.
The majority of the respondents who had an opinion opted for the deletion of Sino-Japanese War Victory Day (68%), and October 2nd (60%). Both are public holidays (but not statutory holidays) that were decreed last summer after the transition to Chinese rule (31-Jul-1997).
The meeting minutes reveal a broad consensus for the cancellation of the recently-introduced Sino-Japanese War Victory Day public holiday, but a lack of consensus as to which other public holiday should be canceled.
Some, based themselves on the 60% of respondents who voted to abolish October 2nd as a public holiday, but they were countered by others who felt that 60% was not a real consensus, and that since October 2nd is a public holiday in Mainland China, it would make sense to keep Hong Kong's public holidays as coherent with those of China as possible.
Others, feeling that there were already too many Christian public holidays, suggested cancelling the Easter Monday public holiday. This proposal was deemed undesirable by those who felt that "the public's preference for long weekends or several holidays in a row should be catered for".
An earlier proposal, that the Government should just add the two new general public holidays to the existing holidays, has been flatly rejected by the Deputy Secretary for Education and Manpower, who re-affirmed the Administration's policy decision to cap the number of general holidays in Hong Kong.
At the end of the meeting, the Government's representative said the the government would try to submit the necessary legislative proposals to the new Legislative Council by July 1998.
Related links:
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Hong Kong 2012 bank holidays and public holidays (current year)
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Hong Kong 2013 bank holidays and public holidays (next year)
• Hong Kong bank holidays and public holidays (news and updates)
• Worldwide
bank holidays and public holidays news updates (March 1998)
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Hong Kong Public Holidays Revision Update