Government Union on Defence in Enforcing Hawker Rules

Kong (right) looks over Chan's paperwork

A government union has come out in defence of confiscating a 90-year-old's hawker cart and arresting a 29-year-old man who was helping her.

Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Staff Rights Union vice chairwoman Li Mei-siu said itinerant hawkers like Chan Tak-ching could not hire assistants to tend to their stalls. Only fixed-pitch ones can have hired helpers. 

Chan had gone to the washroom and when she came back she found the man arrested and her cart seized by FEHD. She pleaded to the officers to give her a fine instead, but they ignored her.

Chan was distraught when her cart was seized

"If she was there, she might only be prosecuted for obstruction of streets because she has a license. But another individual man with no license was doing business, that's why he was prosecuted for unlicensed hawking," she told a radio program.

"When it comes to unlicensed hawking, we always seize the tools as evidence."

Ah, playing by the book.

However she added that FEHD officers will have a "relaxed stance" towards hawkers when enforcing the rules, saying the public might have "misunderstood how we would handle a situation like this."

"Sometimes even if itinerant hawkers hire assistants to help with their business, as long as the licensees are present to man the stall, we would not prosecute them," she said.

"Some residents do not know that itinerant hawkers are not allowed to hire assistants, so they blame the department for not being humane and tend to bully elderly people."

First off, the rule is unreasonable. How can someone go take a toilet break and have no one manning their stall, or if they are, not be able to serve customers because they don't have a license?

Kong says regulations need to be updated

That's the same question lawmaker Doreen Kong Yuk-foon asked, who is supporting Chan. Kong questioned whether the current regulations were outdated and needed to be updated.

"A fixed-pitch hawker can hire assistants to help with managing the stall but an itinerant hawker cannot? I don't really get the logic behind this," she told the same radio program.

"I hope the authorities are more considerate when handling similar incidents to avoid conflicts. Honestly, how many years have they been doing this? Hawkers need to work with dignity and the government should give them room to make a living," she said.

Kong said Chan is still very upset about her cart being confiscated and is worried the chestnuts and quail eggs will go missing or go rotten.

"I just don't understand why they seized the whole cart. I doubt the officers needed to move the cart to the courtroom for prosecution and I don't believe the judge needs to physically see the cart to make a verdict."

Has there never been a previous case where an itinerant hawker was away from their stand and an assistant was caught for handling a transaction in the decades since hawker licenses have been issued? 

Perhaps this is the new "Happy Hong Kong" where the law is enforced to a T because the city's leader was a top cop...

Distressed Hawker's Future in Doubt

Chan begging officers to just giver her a fine, not take her cart

A reporter happened to come across an altercation between a 90-year-old hawker selling roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes and officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department at Cheung Sha Wan MTR station. 

Chan Tak-ching had just left her stall for 20 minutes for a toilet break when a 29-year-old man helped her man her cart, but according to her hawker license she is not allowed to let others do this for her. As a result the young man and the cart were taken away.

Many like eating roasted chestnuts in winter

With several onlookers, the elderly woman was sitting on the ground, pleading with the FEHD officers to only give her a fine, as she depended on this cart for her livelihood. The young man was her goddaughter's son, who was subsequently charged with illegal hawking and was released on a HK$1,000 (US$127) bail pending a trial set for March 29.

"He has been helping me run the cart for several years, while i take care of the money bag," she said. "The female officer was going too far... She said we were peddling the chestnuts at a hawker black spot, but in fact, we were not."

She wanted her cart back to run her business which she has done for decades. However in this situation the cart is seized as evidence, and if the person is convicted, the cart is confiscated permanently, and presumably the hawker license too?

As the FEHD lays down the law, the real problem is that elderly people who should be enjoying retirement, are still eking out a living.

The other day an 84-year-old taxi driver crashed into two pedestrians in Fortress Hill, though before this latest accident, there was debate about whether people over 80 should be allowed to drive a taxi.

There are fewer and fewer hawkers in Hong Kong

It's because they need the money. While the vast majority of taxi drivers are in their 60s, many are in their 50s, and a small handful in their 80s. 

Perhaps the government should revisit its Old Age Allowance or "fruit money" for the elderly, because HK$1,570 a month isn't enough for much of anything in Hong Kong. Only those with good jobs have some kind of pension, while the rest rely on saving as much as they can. And to pass the time some continue to work to earn a bit of extra money.

Street hawkers are a cultural part of Hong Kong. When you see people roasting chestnuts in giant woks on the street, winter is here. There used to be others selling candy and puddings in bowls. But they are no more. You're lucky to find someone making egg waffles, and if you do there's a long line.

There has to be some kind of balance struck to enable the elderly to make a living. But is the government compassionate enough to let Chan get her cart back?

Would You Like a Raid with Your Dinner?

Imagine having your dinner interrupted by screaming officers

On the Instagram account of Hong Kong restaurant group Black Sheep Restaurants the latest post is this message:

"We had a bit of an intense night at Carbone yesterday, we think we were in compliance with the current regs and we are checking with our lawyers."

One of its restaurants is Carbone, a New York-style steakhouse above Lan Kwai Fong in Central that pays homage to the mid-20th century. Suited waiters may entertain guests with funny comments as they dine on American-sized portions of food, mostly meats, pastas and sides, while desserts are presented on a trolley.

Carbone is above Lan Kwai Fong in Central

Last night in the middle of dinner service, inspectors from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and police officers suddenly appeared in the restaurant and apparently screamed at guests to stay where they were and shut up. No one was allowed to talk or even go to the washroom for 45 minutes. Nor were they allowed to touch their phones.

Apparently the staff were each fined HK$5,000 (US$637) for contravening the latest Covid-19 regulations of not inspecting guests' rapid antigen tests.

However, the restaurant did not violate any rules -- it is a restaurant and not a bar or nightclub, which now require each patron to present a negative RAT result before entering.

So why did the FEHD and police raid this place? Did they not know it was a restaurant and not a bar?

Did FEHD do their homework on Carbone first?

Someone either did not do their homework about Carbone, or were using it as an example to other places.

While Black Sheep Restaurants are checking with their lawyers, there isn't much they can do -- the FEHD can pretty much flaunt its power without much oversight or accountability. 

It's intriguing none of the guests were fined, but the staff were, and it seems Carbone was the only restaurant targeted last night.

The incident must be sending chills to every restaurateur in Hong Kong -- which guest wants to endure an experience like that when they're already paying big bucks for a good dinner?

Is this raiding restaurants and screaming at guests going to be the norm now? If so it will definitely turn off people from wanting to dine out again. 

A police raid at another restaurant recently 

It also begs the question if guides like Michelin and Asia's 50 Best Restaurants feel confident enough to continue to promote Hong Kong restaurants when diners can be subject to an outrageous interruption to their meal out of no fault of the dining establishment?

If it is the new normal, surely more people are going to be fed up by this and want to leave Hong Kong...

The government seems intent on killing its own city. And it's doing a really good job of it.