The SAR government published in the Gazette on Friday that the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance - a public healthcare workers union, has been disbanded according to Trade Unions Ordinance last Friday (March 24).
The union announced in June last year that its members passed a decision to dissolve the group during an Extraordinary General Meeting, which the group had officially folded on June 30.
The union, which began operating in December 2019, led the city’s medical workers to go on a five-day strike in February 2020 when Hong Kong was first hit by
Covid-19, demanding the SAR government shut its borders with the mainland to help curb the spread of the
coronavirus.
It had once called on the public to “boycott” the government-developed
Covid-19 tracing app “Leave Home Safe” over personal data privacy concerns. The authorities responded by “expressing anger” over what it called the spreading of “false information.”
During the union’s almost three years of operation, its founder and former chairwoman Winnie Yu Wai-ming has been arrested and charged among the 47 pro-democracy activists accused of conspiracy to subvert the government after holding an informal 2020 poll to select candidates for legislative elections.
Announcing the decision last year, the HAEA wrote on
Facebook that the motion to disband the group was passed amid pressure from all sides and the political stalemate.
“We do not regret choosing to stand at the front of the storm, connecting everyone and doing an act of defiance in this ridiculous era.” HAEA’s statement read.