The Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) said on Monday that the government should take the lead in abolishing the practice of outsourcing jobs, one of several demands the group highlighted on Labour Day.

FTU lawmaker Bill Tang said the practice very much damages the rights of workers. He said outsourced workers are on shorter contracts, which also means they may miss out on pay rises or other benefits such as accumulating holidays.

"The outsourcing system is not ideal and it only damages the rights of workers," he told RTHK.

"If we say we have a problem of working poverty, one of the sources of this is the government's outsource system."

The union also said the government should prioritise jobs for locals and avoid importing more workers, saying officials should stick to the existing mechanism of asking the Labour Advisory Board for approval before bringing in construction and transport workers.

It also noted that around 56 percent of Hong Kong's eligible workers are part of the workforce, some 14 percentage points lower than Singapore.

Tang said that officials should do more to facilitate the return to work of people who've left the workforce because of family commitments, such as by providing better child care services.

"The government must put more efforts to recruit some potential people become professional child carers, so as to release the mothers to the job market," he said.

The Hong Kong Women Worker's Association also called for more support for working mothers.

Its executive director, Wu Mei-lin, called on officials to do more to help the working poor, such as increasing their subsidy levels, at a petition outside the government headquarters.