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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Miss Denise Yue, on the review of Non-Civil Service Contract staff situation in the Legislative Council today (October 18):
Question:
It is learnt the Hospital Authority (HA) has launched a scheme in recent months which allows full-time contract staff who have worked for HA for six years or more to apply for transfer to the permanent establishment. However, temporary staff are excluded from the scheme, and the years of service during which contract staff are employed on temporary appointment terms are also not counted. On the other hand, the Civil Service Bureau is reviewing with various government departments the situation of non-civil service contract (NCSC) staff. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
(a) it will introduce similar transfer schemes to allow NCSC staff with certain years of service to apply for transfer to the permanent establishment, so as to give them job security and to rectify the problem of "different pay for the same work"; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(b) it will advise statutory bodies to treat contract staff and temporary staff equally in the implementation of transfer schemes of any kind, so as to avoid unfairness and divisions; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
The Non-Civil Service Contract Staff (NCSC) Scheme, introduced in 1999, provides Heads of Bureaux, Departments and Offices (hereafter shortened as HoDs) with a flexible means to employ staff on fixed term contracts outside the civil service establishment to meet service needs which are time-limited or short-term or subject to market fluctuations, or which require staff on a part-time basis, or where the mode of delivery of the service is under review or likely to be changed through, for example, contracting out.
The staff employed under the Scheme are not civil servants. As such their terms of appointment and conditions of service are different from those of civil servants. The entry requirements may also be different. HoDs are required to adhere to the guiding principles and arrangements laid down by the Civil Service Bureau for the employment of NCSC staff.
We undertook at the meeting of the LegCo Panel on Public Service in March this year to conduct a special review of the NCSC staff situation on a department-by-department basis to better understand individual departmentsˇ¦ manpower situation. We have indicated that where it is established that civil servants instead of NCSC staff should be employed to meet specific service needs, we would devise appropriate measures with the concerned bureaux and departments while keeping the size of the overall civil service establishment under control. We aim to complete the review around the end of this year and report the outcome to the Panel.
Against the above background, my reply to part (a) of the question is that we will not introduce any scheme that allows NCSC staff with certain years of service in the Government to apply for transfer to become civil servants. But we welcome their applying for civil service posts through our long-established, open, fair and competitive recruitment process, under which qualified candidates are selected on the basis of merits. Therefore, without prejudice to the outcome of the review mentioned earlier on the NCSC staff situation, if there is a long-term need for certain NCSC positions and we decide to replace these positions by civil service posts, we would conduct open recruitment to fill these posts. Serving NCSC staff interested in these civil service openings would be welcomed to take part in the open recruitment process.
In accordance with our established appointment procedures and arrangements, newly appointed civil servants to a specific rank have to go through the required probation period laid down for that rank. If a candidate selected for appointment to a civil service rank has previously served in the recruiting department as a NCSC staff and undertaken duties similar or comparable to those of the civil service rank concerned, the appointment authority may reduce up to half the required probation period for the new appointee. Newly appointed civil servants to a specific rank receive pay at the starting salary point laid down for that rank. Where the appointment authority is faced with serious recruitment difficulties or where the experience of a new recruit, irrespective of whether or not he is a former NCSC staff, is considered particularly valuable for meeting operational needs, the appointment authority may grant incremental credits.
On part (b) of the question, statutory bodies operate in accordance with the powers conferred on them by the respective ordinances. For those statutory bodies employing their own staff, the terms of employment are decided by the governing boards of these bodies. It would not be appropriate for us to direct them on how they should treat their contract staff and temporary staff.
Ends/Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:34
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