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Following is a question by the Hon Kwok Wai-keung and a written reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Paul Tang, in the Legislative Council today (October 23):
Question:
To alleviate the work pressure on staff members and to enhance the quality of their family life, the Government has implemented the five-day work week in government departments by phases since 2006. It also promotes the idea of the five-day work week in society and encourages public and private organisations to follow the practice. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the names of the government departments in which the five-day work week has been fully implemented and the total number of employees of such departments;
(b) of the number of staff members working in the bureaux/government departments (including civil servants, non-civil service contract staff, staff employed by contractors for outsourced services, and staff employed by intermediaries) who do not work under the five-day work week mode at present, and the percentage of this number in the total number of staff, with a breakdown by upper, middle and lower salary bands in the Master Pay Scale or comparable salary bands;
(c) whether the Government has collected data on the implementation of the five-day work week in public organisations; if it has, of the respective numbers and percentages of the employees of public organisations who work under the five-day work week and those under other work modes, with a breakdown by their ranks;
(d) whether the Government has collected data on the implementation of the five-day work week in the private sector; if it has, of the respective numbers and percentages of the employees in the private sector who work under the five-day work week and those under other work modes, with a breakdown by industry; and
(e) as it has been nearly seven years since it launched the five-day work week, whether the Government will set a schedule for full implementation of the five-day work week in government departments, set a target on the proportion of public and private organisations implementing the five-day work week, as well as promote wider implementation of the five-day work week?
Reply:
President,
The Administration has implemented the five-day week initiative in the Government since 2006 with the objective of improving the quality of civil servants' family life without affecting the overall level and efficiency of public services or incurring additional costs to the taxpayer. Under these parameters, bureaux and departments (B/Ds) have to abide by four basic principles in the implementation of the initiative, namely no additional staffing resources, no reduction in the conditioned hours of service of staff, no reduction in emergency services, and continued provision of essential counter services on Saturdays/Sundays. Five-day week work pattern includes working on a "Monday-to-Friday basis", or a "five days on, two days off roster in every seven days", or "fewer than five days/shifts in every seven days".
With respect to parts (a) and (b) of the question, the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) conducts biennial surveys on the implementation of five-day week in B/Ds. According to the results of the last survey, around 106 800 (Note) civil servants (i.e. around 70.5% of the then prevailing civil service strength) distributed in all B/Ds were working on a five-day week work pattern as at September 30, 2012.
Concerning Non-Civil Service Contract (NCSC) staff, their hours and days of work are determined by the B/Ds employing them in accordance with operational circumstances and requirements. CSB already issued a set of guidelines to B/Ds in 2006, stating that B/Ds should extend the five-day week initiative to NCSC staff wherever practicable and appropriate, subject to the aforesaid four principles. According to the above-mentioned survey, as at September 30, 2012, about 9 100 full-time NCSC staff (i.e. around 69% of the total number of full-time NCSC staff at that time) were working on a five-day week work pattern.
Whether or not five-day week could be implemented is subject to the job nature, operational needs, etc of different Government departments and posts, and not pay. As such, the Administration does not have the breakdown of the number of staff on five-day week and non-five day week work patterns by pay scale and we are therefore unable to provide such information.
We do not have information on the number of working days per week for staff employed by Government contractors or employment agencies.
As regards parts (c) and (d) of the question, the Administration has not conducted any survey or study specifically on the implementation of a five-day week work pattern in government-funded public organisations and the private sector. However, the Census and Statistics Department conducted in 2008 a special topic enquiry on "Patterns of hours of work of employees" in respect of the non-government sector (including private sector entities, subvented organisations and statutory bodies). According to the findings, of the 2 558 800 persons working in the non-government sector who were contractually required to work a fixed number of days per week for their employers, some 849 100 (i.e. around 33 %) were required to work five days or less per week.
With respect to part (e) of the question, we will continue to actively encourage B/Ds to explore possible ways to migrate more staff to five-day week, subject to the four basic principles stated above and after staff consultation. We will also continue to encourage them to arrange staff to work in five-day week posts by rotation where practicable and appropriate. In fact, individual departments have continued to implement five-day week pilot schemes.
Government-funded public organisations operate independently according to their respective service nature, management structure and established protocol. These organisations and private sector entities can autonomously decide whether to implement five-day week having regard to their respective operational arrangements, clients' needs, staff views, etc. As one of the facilitators of family-friendly employment practices, the Labour Department has all along publicised the message of family-friendly employment practices including a five-day week work pattern to employers, human resources personnel and the general public through various publicity channels and promotional activities. Employers are also encouraged to adopt work arrangements that can meet the needs of both the operation of the organisations and the employees, having regard to the characteristics of their organisations such as their scale, resources and culture etc.
Thank you, President.
Note: The figures did not include civil servants working in government schools, the Judiciary, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the Hospital Authority, the Vocational Training Council and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, etc.
Ends/Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Issued at HKT 14:10
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