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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for Housing, Mr Dominic Wong, in the Legislative Council today (March 6):

Question:

It is learnt that the Housing Department has implemented a policy which requires tender documents of all outsourcing property management contracts of the Department to specify that the security guards engaged should not work over eight hours in any 24-hour period. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:

(a) the number of executed contracts containing such a provision;

(b) the comparison, in terms of salary and benefits, between security guards engaged under the new provision and the previous arrangement; and

(c) the measures in place to ensure that the security guards' salaries will not be adjusted downwards correspondingly with a reduction in their working hours upon the full-scale implementation of the new provision?

Reply:

Madam President,

The Housing Authority has entered into 23 security service contracts which specify the employment of security guards on three eight-hour shifts. Of these, 11 contracts commenced on March 1, 2002, and 12 contracts will commence on April 1, 2002.

Security services are carried out by Guards, Special Guards and Supervisors. Their average monthly salaries under three-shift contracts are $4,796, $5,120 and $5,688 respectively. While there is a downward adjustment ranging from 10 per cent to 19 per cent of monthly salaries in comparison with previous two-shift contracts, hourly wages have increased by 22 per cent - 35 per cent. Details are shown in the Annex. Working conditions and benefits comply with the Employment Ordinance, and differ among employment contracts for individual guards.

The monthly salaries of security guards vary in accordance with market demand and supply. The Housing Authority envisaged a reduction in salaries as a result of reduced working hours from 12 to eight for security guards. To ensure that guards on three shifts were reasonably paid, the Housing Authority implemented the following measures:

(a) tenderers were required to put forward wage proposals, making reference to the general wage levels in the "Quarterly Report of Wage and Payroll Statistics" compiled by the Census and Statistics Department;

(b) a "two-envelope" scoring system was adopted for tender evaluation. Tenders would only be considered if workplan proposals (including wage levels) were acceptable. The tender achieving the highest combined scores on workplan proposals and contract price would be awarded the contract;

(c) contractors would be required to enter into formal written employment contracts with security guards, stipulating employment conditions (such as salaries, working hours and rest days) so as to ensure that employees would not be exploited; and

(d) the Housing Authority would closely monitor the performance of contractors, including compliance with employment contracts.

These measures will continue to be taken by the Housing Authority.

End/Wednesday, March 6, 2002

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