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Following is a question by the Professor Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (December 11):
Question:
Regarding the employment of part-time nurses by the Hospital Authority (HA), will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(a) the modes under which part-time nurses are currently employed by HA, and the employment terms under each mode; the criteria based on which HA determines the number of part-time nurses to be employed and their employment terms;
(b) in respect of each employment mode, the number of part-time nurses employed by HA with a breakdown by rank, and the average, longest and shortest periods of employment of the part-time nurses of each rank;
(c) given that the Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57) provides that an employee shall be entitled to certain employee rights and benefits only if he or she is employed under a continuous contract (i.e. he or she has been employed by the same employer for four weeks or more, with at least 18 hours worked in each week), whether HA has, for the purpose of evading its obligations to provide part-time nurses with employee rights and benefits so as to save resources, deliberately made administrative arrangements to make their working hours not meeting the conditions for a continuous contract;
(d) the number of part-time nurses currently employed by HA not under a continuous contract, and the reasons for that; and
(e) whether HA has considered making more flexible work arrangements for part-time nurses and improving their employment terms, so as to retain part-time nurses and attract more nurses to join their ranks; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Hospital Authority (HA) has been employing part-time staff, including part-time nurses, to relieve the work pressure of frontline staff. At present, individual clusters recruit part-time staff on established employment terms in accordance with the HA's prevailing human resource policies and in the light of their operational needs.
My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
(a) The HA recruits three types of part-time nurses, namely permanent part-time nurses, contract part-time nurses and temporary part-time nurses.
In general, the employment terms for permanent part-time and contract part-time nurses, such as basic salary, allowance, annual leave and sick leave, are pro-rated according to the percentage of work hours per week. Other benefits include public and statutory holidays, maternity leave, paternity leave, medical benefits, and death and disability benefits, etc.
The basic salary for temporary part-time nurses is also determined by the actual number of hours worked and is paid on a monthly basis. They are also entitled to medical benefits. Other benefits, such as annual leave, public and statutory holidays, sick leave and maternity leave, are provided in accordance with the Employment Ordinance.
The HA will determine the number and type of part-time nurses to be employed having regard to operational needs, manpower requirement and financial situation.
(b) The number and rank of various types of part-time nurses in the HA, as well as their average, longest and shortest period of employment as at September 30, 2013 are set out in Annex.
(c) When recruiting part-time nurses, the HA usually determines the number and the employment type having regard to operational needs and manpower requirement. The HA has not put in place any administrative arrangements to make the working hours of part-time nurses lower than the number specified for a continuous contract.
(d) Currently, there are 178 part-time nurses (excluding temporary part-time nursing students) of the HA not employed under a continuous contract. Renewal of their contracts mainly depends on factors such as staffing arrangement with regard to operational needs and wishes of the nurses themselves.
(e) When determining the remuneration and terms of employment for staff of all grades, including full-time and part-time nursing staff, the HA will consider such factors as job requirements, operational needs and market conditions. Apart from the terms of employment, the HA will take into consideration other factors such as working environment and job satisfaction so as to attract and retain manpower.
The HA endeavours to improve the working environment of frontline staff (including part-time nurses) so as to ease their work pressure and retain manpower. In addition to the recruitment of part-time nurses, the HA has adopted various measures to attract and retain nursing staff. These measures, which include recruiting additional full-time nurses, providing 3 000 additional electrically-operated beds to simplify the work processes of ward staff, and improving ward environment and streamlining workflow to reduce the substantial workload of frontline nurses, will help improve the working environment of full-time and part-time frontline nurses so as to attract and retain manpower.
Ends/Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:17
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