Hong Kong’s largest bus company KMB suspended four drivers for organising a strike.
On Saturday 24 February 2018, Yip Wai-lam, leader of the newly formed Full-time KMB Driver Alliance, led a protest against the new pay restructuring exercise by using buses to block the entrance to the depot. The new pay deal had been agreed with the main drivers’ union, the Motor Transport Workers General Union’s (MTWGU) KMB branch, affiliated with the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions. It reduced drivers’ working hours and included a small pay rise. The MTWGU was one of five unions at the company.
The protest was called off when management agreed to meet Alliance representatives on Monday 26 February. It agreed to the Alliance’s main demands, including scrapping the annual performance appraisal and consulting the drivers over policies that affected them.
At first the KMB said no disciplinary measures would be taken against those involved in the strike but on Tuesday 27 February KMB announced that Yip Wai-lam, her husband and two other drivers involved in the dispute would be dismissed.
That announcement led to an immediate display of solidarity. About 50 members of the public and a number of pro-democratic political parties went to KMB’s depot on the Tuesday evening to show their support for Yip Wai-lam. They included at least six KMB drivers and two representatives from the Staff Rights Association of KMB and the KMB Staff Union. The KMB quickly revised its decision to dismiss the four, and instead suspended them on full pay while considering what further action would be taken.
Five weeks later, on 13 April it was announced that all four were to be reinstated, but KMB warned that they would face serious punishment if they violated company rules again.
