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Quality services will be maintained by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) after the implementation of the five-day week starting from July 1, a spokesman for the SWD said today (June 13).
"The five-day week will be implemented in phases in the SWD. In phase one, only back offices, offices providing in-house professional and administrative services and those services, that, if discontinued on Saturdays, would have no significant impact on the public will move to a five-day week on July 1," the spokesman said.
"The majority of the units providing direct services to the public will not change their work patterns in this phase. Examples are the Departmental Hotline Service Unit, Integrated Family Service Centres and Social Security Field Units," he said.
The spokesman explained that in taking forward the five-day week initiative, the primary consideration was to safeguard the overall level and efficiency of government services and to minimise inconvenience to members of the public.
The department said there would be no additional staffing; no reduction in the conditioned hours of service of individual staff members; no reduction in emergency services; and continued provision of essential counter services on Saturdays.
For the service units that move to a five-day week starting from July 1, only some provide direct counter services to the public. Examples are the Traffic Accident Victims Assistance Section, Criminal and Law Enforcement Injuries Compensation Section, Social Security Appeal Board and Senior Citizens Card Office. As few people use these services on Saturdays this will have little impact on the public.
Nevertheless, the department will take measures to ensure service delivery and to minimise the impact of the new operating hours on the public. For example:
* the operating hours will be extended by 45 minutes on weekdays to compensate for the loss of service hours on Saturdays; the new opening hours will be from 8.45am to 6pm;
* alternative means of service delivery including drop-in boxes and voice mail will be arranged; and
* more general service information will be uploaded onto the department website.
"We will closely monitor the public reaction and operation of the five-day week and fine-tune the arrangements as necessary," the spokesman said.
For details of the five-day week arrangements, see the SWD website (www.swd.gov.hk/en/index/site_aboutus/page_fiveday2). For enquiries, call the departmental hotline at 2343 2255.
Ends/Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:31
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