Hong Kong residential estate Richland Gardens has sparked controversy after announcing the hiring of non-local workers as security guards.
The owners’ corporation of Richland Gardens – a government-subsidised housing estate in Kowloon Bay – announced on Threads on Monday that its management company was training a group of “non-local security guards,” who started working on Monday.
The announcement also included a photo of 30 security guards in blue and black uniforms.
According to the owners’ corporation, most of the security guards came from Guangdong province and are fluent in Cantonese. They have also obtained certificates after completing relevant security training courses in Hong Kong.
The estate’s management company turned to non-local hires after finding it difficult to hire full-time local security guards, the Threads post said.
“Most Hong Kong security guards prefer to work part-time. After the management company took over security work in 2023, it had seen a turnover of more than 200 security guards,” the Chinese-language post read.
The move has sparked criticism online, with netizens questioning why the estate chose to hire non-local workers amid the rising unemployment rate in the city.
Some asked whether the management company turned to non-local hiring to save labour costs.
In the Facebook group “We Are Richland Garden-ers,” some netizens said they were worried about the estate’s security, as they could not verify if the non-local workers had committed any crimes in mainland China.
The owners’ corporation defended the hiring and denied it was to save costs, saying that the salaries of non-local security guards are “similar” to those of local staff.
Richland Gardens’ management company is Pacific Extend, according to the owners’ corporation.
Last year, Pacific Extend – a subsidiary of Hong Kong conglomerate Shui On Group’s SOCAM Development – was acquired by Chinese firm Wuhan Tianyuan Property Management, the Hong Kong Economic Times reported.
Expanded schemes for non-local workers
In 2023, the Hong Kong government increased the quota for non-local workers in the construction and transport industries and in residential care homes, citing a labour shortage.
It also launched the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme (ESLS) in September 2023, which allows Hong Kong employers to import workers for 26 types of jobs that were previously only open to local residents, such as security guards, cashiers, hair stylists, sales assistants, and waiters.
In January, the labour and welfare chief Chris Sun told the legislature that as of December 31, a total of 96,195 non-local workers had been approved to work in Hong Kong, including 4,984 working as security guards.
