A Hong Kong union has slammed health authorities' plans to crack down on medical workers who went on strike earlier this year to protest the government’s poor handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Many health workers went on strike between Feb. 3-7 to demand the government improve its response to the pandemic, including by shutting the border with mainland China — where reported COVID-19 cases had been increasing — and providing sufficient personal protective equipment, isolation wards and other medical support.

The Hospital Authority, which runs the city’s public hospitals, planned to send letters to several thousands of staff members, requesting they explain their absences from duty earlier this year, its chairperson Henry Fan said on Thursday.

First detected in Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province, the coronavirus has so far infected more than 32 million people and killed some 980,000 people in 188 countries.

HA Employee Alliance, the union that organized the strike, on Friday expressed anger at the Health Authority’s move and said officials were persecuting medical workers who were responsible for fighting the coronavirus outbreak in the city.

Going on strike was a right enshrined by the Basic Law, the city’s mini constitution, and medical workers had the right to protest the authority’s failures to provide sufficient protection and ensure a safe work environment, the alliance said.

The alliance, made up of 15,000 medical workers, said members should get in touch with them for legal advice if they received letters from the Health Authority. The union would stand with the workers, it added.

In February, Chief Executive Carrie Lam labeled the striking medical workers as “black sheep” and rejected their demands. She also said at the time that their actions would be “futile.”

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