Overview Sanitation & Hygiene Education food & livelihoods Advocacy

COVID-19 has profoundly impacted the world. In addition to responding immediately with humanitarian relief, Oxfam has also been calling on all governments to support the poorest in their respective countries through its international research and advocacy efforts and those in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

Making the Voices of Sanitation Workers and Security Guards Heard

We at Oxfam Hong Kong (OHK), with our partners Hong Kong Catholic Commission for Labour Affairs, Cleaning Workers' Union, Cleaning Service Industry Workers Union and Health In Action, conducted ‘Survey on Outsourced Workers and Their Working Conditions Amidst COVID-19’ (Chi only) to better understand cleaners’ needs and the challenges they faced in February 2020. We interviewed 149 government-outsourced cleaners from 15 districts across the FEHD, LCSD and Housing Departments, and announced the findings on 18 February 2020.

樂施會署理港澳台項目總監黃碩紅（圖左二）在記者會上提到，由於管工要求清潔工必須戴口罩才能開工，而清潔工又缺乏口罩，因此不少工友唯有重複使用已喪失防疫功能的口罩，導致健康風險。

Hong Kong Programme Manager Wong Shek Hung (second from the left) said cleaners are required to wear a mask at work, yet they were not provided with enough masks. Many cleaners reused their masks several days at a time, even if they were no longer usable, which posed health risks.

「水柱咁猛，後巷咁污糟，清潔工要眼罩、口罩好基本，呢啲真係唔算苛求。但清潔公司應承完又冇派。」強伯（圖左二）在北區任清潔工，負責洗街，他道出疫情下工作的辛酸。

At the press conference, sanitation worker Keung Bak said: 'We have to use high pressure water jets to clean very dirty alleys; eye masks and face masks are essential. We aren't asking for much, but our company hasn't provided us with any.'

Oxfam continued to follow up on our demands and urged the HKSAR Government to offer cleaners and security guards with a HK$1,000 allowance for four months that would also benefit security guards from 5,300 ‘three-nil buildings’ (i.e. those that do not have owners’ corporations, any form of residents’ organisations, or those that did not use property management companies’ services).

In July 2020, we also wrote to Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung urging the government to include outsourced cleaners who work outdoors in its Community Testing of COVID-19 for Frontline Property Management Workers plan to protect their health. We also urged the government to include COVID-19 under the scope of occupational disease in the Employee’s Compensation Ordinance.

Fighting for an Unemployment Allowance for the Poorest

COVID-19 has battered Hong Kong’s economy and sparked a wave of layoffs. In March 2020, Oxfam released the findings of the joint study Survey on low-income families’ employment situation amidst the epidemic together with Agape Community Care Centre of Kwun Tong Methodist Social Service, Concerning CSSA and Low Income Alliance and Hong Kong People Service Centre. We found that unemployment had rose 400% after Chinese New Year, which clearly showed the profound effect COVID-19 was having on the livelihoods of those from low-income households.

陳先生（化名；圖左二）年近50，一直從事餐飲業，2019年底因餐廳生意差而遭解僱，轉到茶餐廳當半職樓面。疫情爆發後，他再次被裁，更沒有通知期，即時失業。他說曾向餐廳、零售商店、咖啡店、超市等求職10次以上，皆無功而回：「對方都話夠人或者裁緊人」。

Mr. Chan (name changed, middle), nearly 50, lost his job after working in the food and beverage industry for years. While he found a part-time job at a cha chaan teng, he lost his job once again, but this time without any notice when COVID hit. He told us he had applied to close to a dozen jobs, but did not have any success: ‘They either say they have enough staff or they’re laying people off’.

是次調查中，逾7成受訪者表示正計劃減少外出或日常食用開支，約四分三受訪者沒信心保住工作或再找到工作。近8成人表示，政府設立短期失業援助金，最能夠幫助基層市民。

Our survey released in March 2020 showed that over 70 per cent of respondants said they would reduce their daily food expenses and go out less, while 75.2 per cent said they had little or extremely little confidence that they would be able to keep their job or find one. And close to 80 per cent said that a short-term unemployment allowance offered by the government would be of most help for the poorest.

Supporting the Unemployed and Opposing the Minimum Wage Freeze

With the continued effects of COVID-19, the unemployment rate reached 7% in Jan 2021 – the highest in 17 years. OHK’s study Hong Kong Poverty Report: Unemployment among the poor during COVID-19 (Chi only) revealed that the number of unemployed people from poor households this year soared to nearly 110,000, 75 per cent of which could be outside the safety net of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) scheme. Further, middle-aged and elderly individuals from poor households were hardest hit, unemployment was 2.4 times higher year-on-year among those between 25 and 29.

Those who earned close to minimum wage also saw their salaries reduced to minimum wage. Oxfam is thus opposed to the minimum wage freeze, and urges the Chief Executive and Executive Council to raise the minimum wage to at least HK$41.4 to ensure that workers can support one other person and earn more than what they would receive through social assistance. Minimum wage should also be reviewed every year so that it increases with inflation and ensures workers can achieve a basic standard of living.

Overseas

Urging the International Community to Fight COVID with the Poorest

In July 2020, Oxfam International released a report titled 'Hunger Virus' warning that more people could die per day by the end of the year as a result of hunger linked to COVID-19 than the number of people who could die from the disease. It also added that the number of people living on US$5.50 a day would increase by more than 500 million and reach nearly 4 billion.

In order to immunise those from developing countries, which have weak economies and fragile medical systems, Oxfam urges the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and G20 to formulate a comprehensive assistance plan. Steps to a fairer future include cancelling the debt of developing countries, and formulating fairer tax policies to build a human economy that benefits everyone, not just the privileged few.

南亞︰疫情令數以萬計的農民工失去工作，他們再也負擔不起城市裡高昂的租金和生活成本，加上封城措施令公共運輸停擺，只能捧著細軟徒步返鄉。

South Asia:Countless migrant workers lost their jobs because of COVID-19 and could no longer afford living in the city. With lockdowns and suspension of public transport, they could only walk miles to return home.

印度︰樂施會和夥伴團體訪問了14個盛產茶葉的地區多名採茶工人，發現全部受訪者已停工多月，當中不少人正面對糧食不足的情況，急需外界支援。

India:Together with our partners, Oxfam interviewed workers on tea plantations in 14 tea-rich areas and found that all interviewees had not been able to work for over a month. Many also faced food shortages and urgently needed support.

東非︰多個國家的農牧業原本已飽受水災和蝗蟲問題困擾，疫情令公共運輸中斷，滅蟲劑以至農產品等的供應亦通通暫停。非洲開發銀行估計，疫情令非洲國家在2020年的國內生產總值合共減少最少1,500億美元。

East Africa: Many in Africa are experiencing a double whammy with both the locust infestation and outbreak of the coronavirus. Pesticide stock has also been dwindling as border closures have strangled supply and overnight curfews restrict the ability of pilots to spray insecticide in key breeding areas. According to the African Development Bank, African economies will likely go into recession in 2020 with an expected loss of at least US$150 billion.

Stopping the ‘Inequality Virus’

Aside from deepening the hunger crisis, COVID-19 has also been exacerbating inequality around the world. In January 2021, Oxfam released the report ‘The Inequality Virus’. It revealed that the 1,000 richest people on the planet recouped their COVID-19 losses within just nine months, but it could take more than a decade for the world’s poorest to recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic. To learn more about the findings of the report, click here.

Oxfam believes that extreme inequality is not inevitable, and that policies play a key role in this. That is why Oxfam will continue to call on leaders around the world to put ending inequality at the core of their economic recovery plans. Steps to achieve this could include improving social policies, implementing ability-to-pay taxation and shifting to a low-carbon economy.

Demanding a People’s Vaccine

In September 2020, Oxfam analysed the deals that pharmaceutical corporations and vaccine producers had struck with nations around the world for the five leading vaccine candidates that were in phase 3 clinical trials based on data collected by Airfinity. Data on the 5.94 billion doses showed that just 13 per cent of the world’s population had cornered more than half (51 per cent) of the promised doses of leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Oxfam thus forecasted that 61 per cent of the world’s population – most of which are developing countries – will not have a vaccine until at least 2022.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Oxfam has been urging governments and pharmaceutical companies to guarantee that all vaccines, treatments and tests be patent-free, mass produced, distributed fairly and made available to all people, in all countries, free of charge.

In May 2020, Oxfam and UNAIDS also published an open letter calling on all governments to unite behind a people’s vaccine against COVID-19. The open letter was signed by 155 leaders and experts around the world, including many current and former heads of state.