The Health, Welfare and Food Bureau will go ahead with its central slaughter house project in Sheung Shui despite legislators' allegation that it would deal a blow to poultry sector workers.

Speaking at a Legislative Council (LegCo) panel meeting yesterday, Deputy Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Cheuk Wing-hing said the government would check out the parties interested in the abattoir this week. The abattoir is supposed to be run by the private sector after it's ready in 2009.

The interested parties have to get back to the government by mid-January, and a formal tender would be floated in August.

Unionist legislator Wong Kwok-hing criticized the government for not having any proposal to compensate the workers who would be rendered jobless after the slaughter house opened.

"I'm dissatisfied and angered. The workers will lose their jobs... But it seems that the government will not think about compensation until the abattoir starts running," he said.

Poultry sector workers had submitted proposals to the government, stating how an outbreak of bird flu could be prevented without making them jobless, Wong said. But the government has ignored them.

Cheuk responded that the government would consider the interest of the workers. "But it's not necessary to consider it two years before the proposed central slaughter house begins operations. We will come up with a compensation proposal later."

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) legislator Tam Yiu-chung said it was highly unlikely for the private sector to be interested in running the proposed abattoir.

Singapore banned the import of frozen chicken from neighbouring economies when it set up its own slaughter houses, he said.

That, however, is not possible in Hong Kong, where frozen chicken could still be imported from the mainland.

"If that's the case, chickens would (also) be slaughtered on the mainland before being supplied to Hong Kong, and our slaughter house would be left without business," he said.

But Cheuk replied that the government had conducted a study that showed a central abattoir was financially feasible.