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LCQ18: Family-friendly measures
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    Following is the question by the Hon Frederick Fung and a written reply by the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Stephen Ip, in the Legislative Council today (November 8):

Question:

     In his newly delivered policy address, the Chief Executive said that "The SAR Government will actively work with the business community and non-governmental organisations to study ways to promote and deepen various family-friendly measures¡K¡K".  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether the Government itself has implemented other family-friendly measures in addition to the five-day work week; if so, of the details of such measures;

(b) of the specific methods (for example, through providing economic incentives and enacting legislation) the Government will take to promote and deepen the following family-friendly measures: fostering a culture of balancing work and life; implementing a five-day work week; prescribing standard working hours; introducing flexi-time arrangements for employees or arrangements for employees to work from home; providing job-sharing or freelance jobs; granting paid paternity leave to employees; and improving child-care services and facilities;

(c) apart from implementing the five-day work week, whether the Government will consider setting an example by taking the lead in implementing the other measures mentioned in (b); if so, of the implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and

(d) given that in its reply to my previous question on the introduction of statutory paternity leave, the Government had said that as most companies in Hong Kong were small and medium sized enterprises, they were relatively less flexible in making staff deployment and the introduction of legislation to provide for paternity leave would increase their running costs and create operational difficulties, but the Government had also said that it was studying this issue, of the latest progress of the study, whether the study has included identifying ways to overcome the above difficulties, and whether reference has been made to relevant overseas experiences?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The Government aims to provide a family-friendly working environment to enable civil servants to cope with both work and family commitments.  Under the basic principles of no additional staffing resources, no reduction in the conditioned hours of service of individual staff, no reduction in emergency services and the continued provision of some essential counter services on Saturday, the five-day week initiative was introduced into the civil service in phases from July 2006 to reduce work pressure of staff and to improve the quality of family life, without impairing operational efficiency.  Heads of Departments may arrange their staff to work in staggered working hours as they consider necessary to meet operational needs.

     Apart from maternity leave, the vast majority of civil servants are provided with full-pay annual leave, ranging from 22 to 40.5 days, for the purpose of recuperation from the pressure of work and attending to personal matters including taking care of their families.

(b) The Employment Ordinance provides the basic conditions for creating a family-friendly working environment. It confers to employees various types of leave including rest day, statutory holiday, annual leave, maternity leave as well as maternity protection. In addition, if an employee reaches mutual agreement with his employer in relation to his absence from work, continuity of his employment contract will not be affected. These measures enable employees to balance their work and family needs.

     Through publicising the relevant messages to employers, employees and members of the public, the Government acts as a facilitator in promoting and deepening family-friendly employment practices.

     The Labour Department has been actively promoting direct and frank communication between employers and employees to discuss employment conditions and work arrangements. We also encourage employers to adopt employee-oriented management policies.  Implementing family-friendly employment practices has been one of our important promotional themes. For example, we will be :

- promoting the messages through the  department's network of Human Resources Managers' Clubs in 18 trades and industries. Meetings for human resources practitioners are arranged to discuss and share experience on the adoption of family-friendly employment practices as well as other good people management methods;

- organising large-scale seminars for employers and human resources practitioners, during which they are encouraged to understand and care for their employees' needs with respect to family and living and formulate suitable employment practices for their companies; and

- holding roving exhibitions at various locations throughout the territory to spread the theme widely.

     These publicity efforts help promote a family-friendly working environment and encourage employers to adopt related employment practices.

     The Labour Department also encourages employers to introduce flexible working arrangement to cater for the needs of employees. For example, employers may allow employees to work flexi-time or work at home, provide employees with job-sharing or freelance jobs so that employees could take better care of their family responsibilities. In fact, many employers in industries like retail, catering and hotel have already arranged their employees to work flexi-time and provided job sharing and part-time work because of operational needs.

     As to whether standard working hours should be introduced in Hong Kong, views within the Labour Advisory Board and different sectors of the community remain diverse. Taking into account the views of stakeholders and having carefully considered our socio-economic situation, the Government has decided to launch the Wage Protection Movement for cleansing workers and security guards.  Under the movement, employers are encouraged to, amongst other things, suitably compensate their workers if the latter have to work beyond contractual working hours.

     The Government helps working parents who are unable to look after their young children through the child care services for children under six provided by subvented and non-profit-making organisations. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also run After School Care Programme to address the after school care needs of students aged 6 to 12. Family in financial difficulties may be granted partial to full fee subsidy.  In addition, flexible child care services such as extended hours service in child care centres, mutual help child care centres and day foster care service operated by non-governmental organisations, local groups, women's associations, etc., are provided. To strengthen our support to families with young children in facing their family or personal problems, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) will launch a new small group day home service and extend the day foster care service. SWD will also strengthen the service provision of mutual help child care centres by providing financial incentives to operators. Fee subsidy will also be made available for families with financial need.

(c) We consider that individual organisations in the public and private sectors are in the best position to decide whether to adopt any family-friendly practices having regard to their operational circumstances, needs of their clients and views of their staff.

(d) The Administration keeps an open mind on the introduction of statutory paternity leave.  The Labour Department is collecting information on overseas practices regarding paternity leave arrangement.  Meanwhile, we will strengthen our promotion on paternity leave and encourage employers to take care of the needs of male employees so that they could achieve a balance between work and family life.

Ends/Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:50

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