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The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, today (September 12) urged enterprises to support family-friendly employment practices to foster harmonious labour relations and employ young people and the disabled to enhance employment for the disadvantaged.
In his keynote address at the luncheon of the Corporate Social Responsibility Hong Kong Conference 2007, Mr Cheung said enterprises should take up the social responsibility of building a harmonious community by applying work-family balance arrangements and promoting employment for the disadvantaged.
Mr Cheung said cordial labour relations were of paramount importance to the building of a harmonious community. Employers and employees would enjoy an amicable relationship if employers were willing to show their concern over their employees' personal and family lives. In recent years, the community was getting more familiar with the concept of the "family-friendly" culture.
"On this, the Labour Department has all along been playing the role of a propeller, and has been actively promoting family-friendly employment practices through exhibitions, seminars and experience-sharing sessions," he said.
Family-friendly employment practices do not always cost more; what is needed is just a little thoughtfulness and flexibility on the management side.
Mr Cheung cited as examples the cases where some retail shops would ensure that all employees would have two Sundays off when working out the monthly roster, and some others would take into account employees' needs and allow them to work flexible hours so they could attend parental activities with their children.
"Such practices would relieve employees from stress and help them concentrate on their work, and in turn boost team spirit and increase work productivity," he said.
Another important factor that contributes to social harmony is to assist the disadvantaged with their employment. Mr Cheung pointed out that youngsters often faced difficulties in finding a job because they had less work experience.
To support youngsters in need, the Labour Department will set up two Youth Employment Resource Centres in the fourth quarter of this year to provide one-stop services on career counselling, self-enhancement and training as well as support for self-employment to youths aged between 15 and 29.
He said the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme and the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme had become the largest youth employment programmes in Hong Kong, thanks to the overwhelming support from the community. The two programmes, which have trained more than 80,000 youngsters and assisted more than 50,000 job placements respectively, are highly regarded by the International Labour Organisation.
On the employment for the disabled, Mr Cheung said it depended much on whether employers are receptive and employ people on their merits. "Aside from showing their care and support, employers may also come up with options that would meet their employees' need. These include making special arrangements to the office setting, providing ancillary facilities, re-arranging work procedures and re-adjusting work progress," he said.
Corporate Social Responsibility Hong Kong Conference 2007 is jointly organised by the Labour and Welfare Bureau and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service to encourage enterprises to fulfil the spirit and management culture of corporate social responsibility with a view to developing Hong Kong into a more open, inclusive and harmonious community.
Ends/Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:29
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