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Following is a question by Dr the Hon Fernando Cheung and a reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, in the Legislative Council today (December 19):
Question:
Quite a number of staff members and trade-union representatives of the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) have pointed out that, with the expansion of telebetting facilities by HKJC and the pool investment amounts reaching new heights time and again in recent years, the workload of staff at telebet centres has increased substantially. However, the manpower of telebet centres has been reduced instead of being increased, and most of the work is taken up by part-time staff. HKJC has recently turned off the "call delay system" and, as a result, staff members have to handle incoming calls incessantly. Under prolonged hearing strains, some staff members have symptoms of tinnitus. Furthermore, HKJC has shortened staff's rest time and they are not permitted to leave their posts over an extended period of time, and therefore they cannot go to the washroom or take rest. It has recently been reported that between September and November this year, two part-time staff members of telebet centres died suddenly while at work and on the way home after work respectively. Regarding the occupational health of staff at HKJC telebet centres, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it has assessed if the current staff establishment of HKJC telebet centres and the proportion of part-time to full-time staff at peak betting hours will overload some staff members with work and thus jeopardise their occupational health;
(b) whether it has examined if HKJC has provided reasonable rest time to its staff at telebet centres; and
(c) how the authorities regulate the working arrangements implemented by HKJC for reducing operational costs so that such arrangements do not jeopardise the occupational health of its staff, and recurrence of any tragedy of sudden death of staff can be avoided?
Reply:
President,
The Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) is responsible for formulating the gambling policy, issuing licences for horse betting in accordance with the law and monitoring the implementation of the policy. The HAB does not and will not engage itself in the internal management of the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), including its arrangement on staff establishment and other matters. Similar to other institutions operating in Hong Kong, the HKJC is governed by relevant legislations such as the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance (the OSH Ordinance) in respect of its operation management and even staff relations. As the information requested by Dr Hon Cheung in his question is not in the hands of the Administration, the following information is obtained from the HKJC -
(a) A telebet centre handles calls that place bets on horse race betting, football betting and Mark Six Lottery. Its operation is different from that of general customer hotline services. The number of betting calls would only soar on the 83 local race days of each year, particularly during the period when the races are in progress. Thus, the HKJC has to employ part-time staff to cope with the large number of incoming calls on race days.
In addition to its approximately 300 monthly contract staff, the HKJC's Telebet Department has employed around 8 500 hourly-paid part-time staff to receive the huge number of additional incoming betting calls during the betting period on every race day. During the peak betting hours when the races are in progress, i.e. about one hour before the start of the first race up to the end of the last race on a race day, the ratio of the monthly contract staff versus the hourly-paid part-time staff responsible for receiving betting calls is about 1 to 22.
(b) The working shifts of the Telebet Department are flexibly arranged according to the slots opted by the staff upon employment. The maximum number of working hours for each shift is nine hours and there is an interval of no less than 12 hours between two shifts. For every four hours of work, monthly contract staff as well as hourly-paid part-time staff are entitled to a 30-minute break with pay, and an additional paid break of 15 minutes after eight hours of work. Furthermore, staff may leave their post for washroom or a cup of water while on shift if needed. The supervisors will arrange manpower redeployment accordingly.
A monthly contract staff member generally works 100 to 180 hours per month, while an hourly-paid part-time staff member 30 to 50 hours.
On average, the time used for handling betting calls by each staff member during peak betting hours only makes up about 50% of his paid working hours.
Once the time of a staff member handling one or more calls reaches 20 minutes without a stop, the Telebet Department will activate the call delay system to divert the incoming calls to other telephone units. Upon activation of the system, the telephone unit of the staff member concerned will stop receiving calls for 3 to 6 seconds.
(c) The OSH Ordinance stipulates that employers must, so far as reasonably practicable, ensure the safety and health at work of all their employees, which includes providing and maintaining systems of work that are safe and without risks to health. As far as occupational safety is concerned, according to the HKJC, the working environment and facilities of all telebet centres comply with the legislative requirements of the OSH Ordinance.
As regards the occupational health of employees of the HKJC telebet centres, the Labour Department has conducted a number of inspections to the HKJC telebet centres to assess various potential health risks to the employees at work. The Labour Department has given recommendations on improvement measures, which included urging the management of the HKJC to pay attention to the frequency of betting calls and arrange for short breaks between incoming calls for the employees so as to alleviate their work stress at peak periods. Moreover, the management was recommended to strengthen the training for employees to remind them of tuning the volume of headsets properly while answering betting calls.
As for the incidents involving the sudden deaths of two part-time staff members of the Telebet Department in September and November this year, the HKJC has responded to media enquiries and has issued a statement to provide a detailed account for clarification. The HKJC has nothing to add in this respect.
Ends/Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Issued at HKT 12:30
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