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Following is a question by the Hon Lee Cheuk-yan and a written reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Paul Tang, in the Legislative Council today (February 4):
Question:
The Government always emphasises that it welcomes persons with disabilities to apply for government jobs and has put in place suitable facilitating measures with a view to enabling candidates with disabilities who meet the basic entry requirements to compete with able-bodied candidates on equal footing, so as to ensure that candidates with disabilities will enjoy equal opportunities when applying for government jobs. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of new recruits to the Civil Service in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 who declared their disabilities, and set out a breakdown in the following table;
Types of disability / Year 2012-2013 2013-2014
-------------------------- --------- ---------
Visual impairment
Hearing impairment
Physical disability
Intellectual disability
Ex-mentally ill persons
Visceral disability
Others (e.g. autism,
speech impairment,
specific learning
difficulties, etc.)
Total number of
new recruits who declared
their disabilities
---------------------------- --------- ---------
Total number of new recruits
(2) given that under government guidelines, candidates with disabilities who meet the basic entry requirements for a post will not be subject to shortlisting criteria and will be automatically invited to attend selection test or interview to compete with other candidates on equal footing, and recruiting departments are required to proactively ascertain from individual candidates any assistance or accommodation needed so as to facilitate him/her in attending the test or interview, whether the authorities have required recruiting departments to contact candidates with disabilities within a certain number of days after receiving their applications to invite them to such tests or interviews; whether the authorities have assessed if the recruiting departments will contravene the relevant requirements under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by failing to contact candidates with disabilities and thus failing to provide them with the assistance or accommodation needed;
(3) given that under government guidelines, the recruiting departments will suitably adjust the selection test or interview process to cater for the special needs of the candidates with disabilities, e.g. extension of the examination time with regard to the degree of the candidates' disability and complexity of the paper, of the number and percentage of those candidates with disabilities in the past three years for whom the selection test or interview process was suitably adjusted by the recruiting departments, as well as the reasons for such adjustments not being made for some candidates with disabilities;
(4) as it is learnt that although recruiting departments did extend the examination time or arrange separate test centres for some candidates with disabilities, these candidates were nonetheless assigned to take the examination at inconveniently located test centres due to the small number of candidates with disabilities, whether the authorities have assessed if such arrangements constitute differential treatment rendering candidates with disabilities unable to enjoy equal opportunities when taking such tests; and
(5) given that some persons with disabilities employed by government departments on short-term or one-year contracts have relayed to me that while they need to attend follow-up medical consultations regularly, the attendance certificates issued to them are not accepted by their departments and they are hence required to work extra hours or accept salary/paid leave deduction to compensate for the loss of working hours incurred by their follow-up medical consultations, whether the authorities will consider accepting attendance certificates from employees with disabilities as valid sick leave certificates?
Reply:
President,
Our reply to the question is as follows:
(1) Based on information available, in 2012-13 and 2013-14, the numbers of new recruits who were appointed on civil service terms and declared their disabilities are as follows (by types of disability):
Types of disability / Year 2012-2013 2013-2014
-------------------------- ---------- ---------
Visual impairment 7 7
Hearing impairment 8 28
Physical disability 5 14
Intellectual disability 0 1
Ex-mentally ill persons 3 7
Visceral disability 5 21
Others (e.g. autism, 2 2
speech impairment,
specific learning
difficulties, etc.)
Total number of new recruits 30 80
who declared their disabilities
------------------------------- --------- ---------
Total number of new recruits 7 316 8 460
(2) According to the existing guidelines, if a recruiting department/grade invites a candidate who has declared his/her disabilities to attend the selection test and/or interview, it should proactively ascertain with the candidate the assistance or accommodation necessary to facilitate him/her in attending the test and/or interview. The recruiting department/grade will normally verify the candidates' eligibility and ascertain with them the assistance and accommodation needed before inviting them to the test and/or interview. As the number of candidates, the test and/or interview arrangements involved as well as the process and time required for verifying eligibility of candidates vary from post to post, the existing guidelines do not specify a standard timeline for recruiting department/grade to contact the candidates and invite them to such tests and/or interviews. The recruiting department/grade will make appropriate arrangements having regard to the circumstances of individual cases.
(3) When arranging selection test and/or interview, the recruiting department/grade will make suitable adjustments to the process and/or arrangements of the test and/or interview taking into account the special needs of individual candidates with disabilities. Examples include extending the examination time for candidates with visual impairment or dyslexia; providing visually impaired candidates with display of larger size, electronic amplifiers, enlarged/braille question papers, enlarged answer books and table lamps, and allowing them to write on alternate lines of an answer book and to use their own magnifier; conducting interview with hearing impaired candidates through written communication and arranging them to sit in the front row or the left- or right-hand side of the examination hall (depending on the degree of hearing impairment of the candidates), making available a set of written directions for them to follow during the announcement of the presiding invigilator, and speaking at a slower pace when putting questions to them in an interview; and identifying examination venues with appropriate facilities and passageways for wheel-chaired candidates to facilitate their easy access, and arranging them to sit near the entrance of the examination hall, etc. The Civil Service Bureau does not keep statistics on the number of candidates with disabilities for whom the selection test and/or interview process has (have) been suitably adjusted, and information on the reasons why such adjustments were not made for individual candidates with disabilities (if any).
(4) When arranging for a selection test or interview, the recruiting department/grade will take into account relevant factors (e.g. circumstances of a particular recruitment exercise, and preference of the candidates with disabilities, types and degree of their disabilities, assistance or accommodation required, etc.) before making appropriate arrangements to facilitate them in attending the test and/or interview. In the process, candidates with disabilities may indicate their special needs to the recruiting department/grade to facilitate the latter's consideration and making of suitable adjustments. The recruiting department/grade will arrange, as far as possible, for the test and/or interview to be conducted at a convenient location to facilitate attendance of the candidates with disabilities and will consider making special transport arrangements for them where necessary. For example, for the Joint Recruitment Examination conducted by the General Grades Office (GGO) recently, visually impaired candidates requiring special equipment to take the examination were arranged to sit for the examination at a venue where such equipment was available. As the venue was in Pokfulam, taking into account the transport needs of the visually impaired candidates, GGO deployed its staff and a shuttle to take these candidates to the examination venue and the Mass Transit Railway station before and after the examination.
The Government's policy objective on employment of persons with disabilities seeks to ensure that they will, like other candidates, have equal access to job opportunities in the Government. On the basis of the policy objective, we have formulated the relevant facilitating measures, including the accommodation arrangements for recruitment tests and/or interviews to facilitate the participation of candidates with disabilities in the relevant recruitment process. There is no question of subjecting candidates with disabilities to less satisfactory or unfair treatment due to their smaller number.
(5) Given the nature of the Non-civil Service Contract (NCSC) Staff Scheme, and in order to maintain flexibility of the Scheme, bureaux/departments (B/Ds) are given the discretion to decide on matters relating to the employment of NCSC staff, including day-to-day management, according to their own circumstances. Therefore, should NCSC staff need to receive treatment, examination or consultation at clinics during office hours, Heads of Department could exercise discretion to decide whether the staff concerned will be allowed time-off for the medical appointments having regard to operational needs, and whether he/she will be required to produce relevant documentary proof. In normal circumstances, B/Ds may, having regard to their operational needs, allow full-time NCSC staff to take time-off as necessary for medical appointments with valid medical certificates or attendance slips, without the need to cover such absence by extending normal working hours, deduction of salary or paid annual leave.
Ends/Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:59
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