*****************************************
Following is a question by the Dr Hon Pan Pey-chyou and a reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Miss Denise Yue, in the Legislative Council today (March 2):
Question:
As at September 30, 2010, a total of 2,260 agency workers were engaged by the Government, with the Department of Health (DH), Leisure and Cultural Services Department and Education Bureau engaging the largest number of such workers. I have earlier received requests for assistance from members of the Union of Hong Kong Junior Civil Servants who pointed out that late last year, DH had planned to further engage agency workers in place of civil servants to handle clerical work in all government clinics but the plan was shelved by DH eventually. They also pointed out that such agency workers did not have any employment relationship with the Government, but administration work in the Government would inevitably involve personal privacy and confidential data of members of the public; and employment agencies would charge commission and exploit agency workers by cutting their wages, which would lead to the situation of "different pay for the same job" in government departments. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the actual expenditures incurred respectively by various bureaux and government departments in engaging agency workers in the past three years, as well as the respective amounts of commission paid to the employment agencies;
(b) of the academic qualifications required of agency workers by the Government, with a breakdown by bureau/department and post, and whether it knows their employment terms; and
(c) whether it knows if the pay levels as well as the terms and conditions of the employment contracts offered by employment agencies to their employees enable agency workers to enjoy remuneration packages which are more favourable than those offered on the market; if so, of the details; if not, of the measures the authorities have to improve the situation; given that the statutory minimum wage will be implemented shortly, how the authorities guarantee that the wages paid by employment agencies to their employees will not be lower than the statutory minimum wage level?
Reply:
President,
Regarding the first part of the question, the actual expenditure incurred by bureaux/departments (B/Ds) in the procurement of employment agency service in 2008/09 and 2009/10 was $199 million and $265 million respectively, while the estimated expenditure for 2010/11 is $253 million. In procuring employment agency service, B/Ds must comply with the relevant Stores and Procurement Regulations, Financial Circulars and guidelines issued by the Civil Service Bureau. These regulations and guidelines do not require B/Ds to specify the amount or the rate of commission payable to employment agencies. As such, we do not have comprehensive information on this matter.
Regarding the second part of the question, as B/Ds mainly use the manpower supplied by employment agencies for meeting urgent and short-term service needs, agency workers are generally referred to as temporary staff and are not assigned any specific post titles. In the absence of any specific post titles for agency workers, we are not able to provide a breakdown of the academic qualifications required of the manpower supplied by employment agencies by post title categorisation. We have attempted to categorise the manpower provided by employment agencies into the following seven groups by the academic qualifications required, namely:
(a) primary six or below or equivalent;
(b) secondary one to three or equivalent;
(c) secondary four to five or equivalent;
(d) five passes in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (irrespective of whether a pass/passes in specific subject(s) is/are required) or equivalent;
(e) two passes in the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination and three credits in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (irrespective of whether a pass/passes and/or credit(s) in specific subject(s) is/are required) or equivalent;
(f) diploma, higher diploma or associate degree or equivalent; and
(g) university degree or above or equivalent.
A breakdown of the manpower supplied by employment agencies working in B/Ds as at September 30, 2010 by the above academic qualification groups is at Annex.
Regarding the third part of the question, the terms of employment, wage levels and contractual terms of agency workers are to be agreed upon between agency workers and their employers (i.e. employment agencies) when they enter into employment contracts. As B/Ds do not keep detailed records of such information, we do not know whether the remunerated packages of agency workers are more favourable than those offered in the market.
The above said, the Government is very concerned about the wage level of non-skilled workers. Since May 2004, for all government service contracts which require the service of primarily non-skilled workers, the concerned contractors (including employment agencies which supply manpower) have been required to pay their workers monthly wages no less than the average monthly wages for the relevant industry/occupation published in the latest Census and Statistics Department's Quarterly Report of Wage and Payroll Statistics at the time when tenders are invited. Since May 2005, all government service contractors have to sign the standard employment contracts with their non-skilled workers, setting out clearly the monthly wages, working hours, methods of wage payment, etc.
In addition, since April 2010, when entering into service contracts with employment agencies, B/Ds are required to specify that the employment agencies must pay, for the whole duration of the concerned service contracts, their agency workers (other than non-skilled agency workers) assigned to work in the procuring B/Ds wages no less than the average monthly wage of miscellaneous non-production workers in all selected industries published in the latest Census and Statistics Department's Quarterly Report of Wage and Payroll Statistics at the time when tenders are invited. B/Ds also have to specify a monitoring mechanism, as well as sanctions to be imposed in the event of non-compliance with the wage requirement.
Moreover, there are provisions in the contracts entered into between B/Ds and service contractors (including employment agencies which supply manpower) requiring the latter to comply with Hong Kong laws in force during the contract period. In other words, for contracts with a validity period straddling May 1, 2011, i.e. the commencement date of the Minimum Wage Ordinance (the Ordinance), service contractors (including employment agencies) are required, in accordance with the terms of the contracts, to comply with the relevant provisions in the Ordinance by paying their employees wages no less than the minimum wage rate stipulated in the Ordinance. Otherwise, the B/Ds concerned may impose sanctions on the contractor concerned in accordance with the provisions of the contract, including termination of contract.
Thank you, President.
Ends/Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Issued at HKT 14:15
NNNN
