Jump to full article: South China Morning Post, 2009-09-03
Author: Ng Yuk-hang
Intro: More than a dozen unions have pledged to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department that they will enforce the smoking ban, its chief said yesterday, though union leaders disputed that claim.
Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene Cheuk Wing-hing said that he had met the heads of 13 of the department's unions, representing more than 5,400 civil servants, and that all leaders had said they would implement the law. The department has 16 unions.
His claim comes after seven representatives from the department's two staff unions marched to the Legislative Council's complaints division on Tuesday to file a complaint about being made to enforce the ban. A union leader present at yesterday's meeting with Cheuk said that some unions had made clear their opposition towards enforcing the ban.
But Cheuk said that it was only "individual groups" who were unwilling to perform their new duty.
"Civil servants in their right mind will implement the new law," he said.
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