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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Wong-fat and a written reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Paul Tang, in the Legislative Council today (January 9):
Question:
It has been reported that a contract employee of the Hongkong Post had been granted a total of more than 600 days of sick leave within two years for work injury. However, that employee was subsequently found to have used forged medical certificates (commonly known as "sick leave certificates"). Regarding the management of the taking of sick leave by government employees (including civil servants and non-civil service contract staff), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of government employees who had taken sick leave cumulatively for over two months in any 12-month period in the past five years (with a breakdown by government department);
(b) whether the authorities have put in place any mechanism for handing over sick leave cases of government employees to departments other than the one to which the employees belong, for spot checking any suspicious cases; and
(c) whether the Government will review the existing system for government employees taking sick leave so as to prevent any abuse of sick leave?
Reply:
President,
(a) According to the data collected by the Civil Service Bureau (CSB), the number of civil servants who have taken a total of 30 days (Note 1) of sick leave (Note 2) or more (including both sick leave related to injury on duty (IOD)/occupational disease (OD) and sick leave not related to IOD/OD) in each calendar year in the past five years from 2007 to 2011 is shown in the Annex. The sick leave records of non-civil service contract (NCSC) staff are managed and kept by individual bureaux/departments (B/Ds). CSB does not collect sick leave information of NCSC staff from B/Ds.
(b) There are established mechanism and measures for managing the sick leave of civil servants and preventing abuse of sick leave. The mechanism seeks to strike a balance between ensuring the provision of rest to officers who have fallen sick on the one hand, and the effective management of sick leave on the other. For effective management of sick leave, the Civil Service Regulations have set out the arrangements for the granting of sick leave and measures to prevent abuse of sick leave. CSB has also issued a set of guidelines on sick leave management to all B/Ds, and reminded them of the need to pay attention to frequent sick leave takers and to initiate early monitoring action. Where there are dubious cases of sick leave not related to IOD/OD, the bureau/departmental management will consider taking appropriate follow-up action under the mechanism, such as to interview the concerned officers to understand their reasons for taking frequent sick leave. Where there are signs suggesting that an officer might have abused sick leave, the department may require the officer to attend a particular Government or Hospital Authority (HA) clinic or attend before a Government or HA medical officer, and produce medical certificates issued by the particular Government or HA clinic or medical officer. Otherwise, the department may refuse to grant sick leave to the officer. Where necessary, the department may require the officer to be examined by a Medical Board to be appointed by HA, and on the advice of the Medical Board decide whether or not to allow the officer to continue to be granted sick leave.
Individual B/Ds have put in place mechanisms in managing and monitoring the sick leave of NCSC staff. B/Ds have also drawn up measures to prevent abuse of sick leave catering to their own operational circumstances and needs by making reference to the mechanism of monitoring sick leave of civil servants.
For sick leave resulting from IOD/OD, the department will first ascertain whether the case concerned is an IOD/OD case. The officer concerned is required to produce a sick leave certificate issued by a registered medical practitioner or a registered Chinese medicine practitioner to support that the sick leave is related to IOD/OD. If the department has doubts on whether the sick leave applied for is related to IOD/OD, it may request HA to appoint an independent Medical Board to consider the case.
All in all, no matter the sick leave is related to IOD/OD or not, B/Ds may refer the suspected case to a Medical Board for assessment under the mechanism. For suspected fraudulent case, the department may consider referring the evidence collected to the Police or other law enforcement agencies for action.
(c) CSB reviews the sick leave data of civil servants submitted by B/Ds on a regular basis, including the average sick leave days taken by civil servants, the number of officers involved, the number of prolonged and suspected abuse of sick leave cases, etc to keep in view the sick leave situation in individual B/Ds as well as the whole civil service. For individual B/Ds with average sick leave days taken by their officers higher than the overall figure across the service or having more cases of prolonged sick leave, the management of those B/Ds will be asked to review and report to CSB the reasons leading to such situation. The reviews may also cover their internal sick leave management arrangements and any improvement action, etc. for CSB to gauge the situation and assess the effectiveness of the prevailing sick leave management measures. CSB will review the sick leave management measures from time to time with a view to facilitating B/Ds to effectively administer sick leave rules and taking appropriate follow-up action in cases of suspected abuse of sick leave.
Similarly, B/Ds will duly review the sick leave situation of their NCSC staff and their internal sick leave management arrangements. B/Ds will take appropriate follow-up action in cases of suspected abuse of sick leave by NCSC staff.
Note 1: CSB does not collect statistics from B/Ds on the number of government employees who have taken sick leave for more than two months.
Note 2: Sick leave is counted on a calendar day basis. Any intervening Sundays, gazetted general holidays and any Saturday mornings/afternoons on which an officer is not due to attend for duty, are also counted as sick leave.
Ends/Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:42
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