Many men are spending less than 15 minutes with their wives and children, according to a survey conducted by the Neighbourhood and Worker’s Service Centre (NWSC).
NWSC polled 138 children and 162 wives across seven regions in mid-June.
As many as 65 percent of children said they spend “less than 15 minutes” with their fathers each day, out of which 55 percent said they were “seldom connecting with their father”, with 46 percent seeing “long work hours” as a factor, Mingpao reports.
In addition, 55 percent of the wives surveyed reported their husbands work over 44 hours per week. Fifity-four percent said they spend less than 15 minutes with husbands, half of which said the men’s fatigue after work was a factor.
Sixteen percent of wives surveyed are concerned that their spouses’ long hours are affecting their relationships and their children.
Leung Yiu-chung from NWSC urged the government to implement standard working hours and align statutory holidays with public holidays, which would see them increase from 12 to 17 days.
On the other hand, a survey conducted by the Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) concluded that about one in five Hong Kong fathers have no time at all for their children.
Out of the 814 fathers surveyed, around 47 percent of respondents called for standard working hours, and 42 percent demanded overtime compensation.
Alexander Ng, secretary of FTU’s social affairs committee, also seeks to lobby the government to combine public holidays and their annual leave in order to improve family lives.
“We would like the government to execute this policy as soon as possible, so the fathers would have more time to keep their children company”, Ng told the SCMP.
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