Representatives from five trade unions and workers group petitioned the government on 25 April 2009. They presented their demands for termination of out-sourcing cleaning work and employ more public employees to do the jobs.
They conducted two surveys between February and April, one targeted public employees of the Food and Environment Department. Among the 140 questionnaires collected, 60 percent of the respondents said that they had to do extra work because of under-staffed. 75 percent said workload was too heavy. Hence 90 percent of them complained work injury or muscular strain.
The other survey targeted out-sourced cleaners. A total of 131 questionnaires were collected, and 20 percent of them worked more than nine hours daily, some even worked ten hours. Their wages were extremely low, 60 percent of them earned 4,000-5,500 HK dollars, 94 percent of them earned below 6,500 HK dollars.
The five groups present at the action included: Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre, Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Staff Right Union, Government Frontline Employee Union, Shampshuipo Community Association, Hong Kong Woman Workers Association.