Society

Carrying a blue cart of buckets and brooms, Luke Ching Chin-wai, 50, was supposed to clean the left-wing of Tai Wai MTR station. It is a two-storey building that includes four railways of the Tuen Ma and East Rail Lines, with stores on the ground floor.  In addition to 11 rubbish bins, Ching is also responsible for cleaning the advertising lightboxes, handrails and gates, as well as the train area, all within two hours.  Ching is drenched in sweat already before he’s even finished half of his duty, and he has yet to take a break.  “What a nuisance to be sweaty,” he said while cleaning the entrance gate. Cleaning workers like Ching have to maintain the hygiene in areas such as public toilets and refuse collection rooms. However, frontline cleaners are not always well equipped, especially during the pandemic. They risk their health to earn meagre salaries, and their rights and welfare are often barely protected.  But Ching is also a conceptual artist and a labour activist. He discovered the hidden welfare problems of cleaning workers working for the Mass Transit Railway after going undercover since November last year. Cleaners work under the MTR Corporation are outsourced to ISS Facilities Service Limited and Winson Cleaning Service Company Limited through tendering, according to the company’s website. Suppliers listed the business details on the tendering documents for MTRC to choose from, including the salary for the cleaners.  The number of face masks dispensed is equivalent to the number of working days, but it is far from enough. “One is needed before the break, a new one is needed after that, and should be changed after work,” explained Ching. A minimum of three face masks are needed for an eight-hour shift.  Hygiene work in an MTR station is not limited to wiping …

Hazel Chung, a university freshman who has to study at home due to the pandemic, is forced to study at the same table with her sister, who just got into secondary school. They live in a public housing flat with their mother, who works six days a week at a supermarket.  In a 15-square-metre apartment, the family uses a foldable table for dining, working, and studying. As the flat is not spacious, they will need to sit on the bunk bed for the lesson. Besides the physical environment, poor internet interrupts online learning as well. If one of the two sisters is answering questions from teachers, the other will easily be affected due to internet traffic jams, according to Chung. The intermittent internet connection often lasts for a minute and reconnects itself, repeatedly repeating every time Chung and her sister have online lessons together. “When both of us turn our cameras on, the video quality will drop significantly, making it very hard to concentrate,” said Chung. It is not just students who feel that students are not concentrating. Liz Li Tsing-wen, the head of Citizenship and Social Development in Pui Kiu College, said she noticed that students are not concentrated on online lessons. “It is very easy to see that some students are looking at the monitor but their mind has been distracted by other things at home,” said Li. “The only benefit is that I do not have to repeat ‘keep quiet’ a thousand times because they only turn on their microphones when I call their names.” Chung agrees with Li's comment and says, “even myself, as an adult and a tertiary education student, feels difficult to concentrate on online learning.” “If I have my own room and better internet, I can be more concentrated, and so does my …