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Following is a question by the Hon Kwok Wai-keung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (April 15):
Question:
Regarding the working hours of the employees in Hong Kong and overtime work performed by them, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the average weekly working hours of the employees in Hong Kong at present, with a breakdown by industry, job type and wage level;
(2) of the average weekly hours of overtime work performed by the employees in Hong Kong at present, with a breakdown by industry, job type, wage level and form of compensation;
(3) of the respective numbers of employees, as estimated by the Government, who will be affected by the enactment of legislation prescribing the standard working hours (SWH) at 40, 42, 44, 46 or 48 hours per week, as well as the industries and job types in which such employees are engaged and their wage levels; and
(4) whether the authorities will formulate, before enacting legislation on SWH, new measures to reduce uncompensated overtime work performed by employees; whether they will conduct relevant researches to look further into the causes for overtime work and its impacts on employees' daily lives; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the question raised by the Hon Kwok Wai-keung is as follows:
(1) and (2) The Standard Working Hours (SWH) Committee, established by the Government, commissioned a consulting firm to conduct a territory-wide large-scale household survey between June and August 2014 to collect working hours statistics and relevant information with a view to facilitating an objective and impartial discussion on a working hours policy. According to the key survey findings previously released by the SWH Committee, it is estimated that the average and median total working hours during the past seven days before enumeration for all employees in Hong Kong (3 142 500 persons) were 43.5 and 44.0 respectively, but the working hours varied significantly across sectors (with median total working hours during the past seven days before enumeration ranging from 40.0 to 54.0). Of these, 228 300 employees had performed compensated overtime work (with overtime pay and/ or time-off in lieu) during the past seven days before enumeration and the median of the compensated overtime hours concerned was 5.0. Altogether 578 300 employees had engaged in overtime work without pay or time-off in lieu (i.e. uncompensated) and the median of the uncompensated overtime hours concerned was also 5.0.
(3) The SWH Committee has not hitherto conducted any impact assessment on the number of employees affected under different working hours policy options.
(4) The Government has been encouraging employers to adopt different types of family-friendly employment practices (FFEP), having regard to the company size, resources and culture as well as employees' needs, to help employees achieve a better balance between work and family lives. The Labour Department (LD) will continue to disseminate relevant information to the community through a wide range of publicity channels and various educational and promotional activities such as publications, large-scale seminars, thematic exhibitions, newspaper feature articles, advertisements in periodical journals of major employers' associations and in public transport network as well as regular meetings and exchanges with corporate executives and human resources managers. In 2015-16, LD will enhance its publicity and education efforts in promoting FFEP by publishing a series of news supplements on successful experiences of enterprises in implementing FFEP, and compile the series into a casebook for related parties to encourage more employers to adopt FFEP.
Ends/Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Issued at HKT 11:55
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