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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Miss Denise Yue, on the Non-Civil Service Contract Staff Scheme in the Legislative Council today (May 10):
Question:
Regarding Non-Civil Service Contract (NCSC) staff, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of NCSC staff and civil servants, and provide a comparison of the remuneration and fringe benefits for NCSC staff with those for their civil servants, broken down by the groupings in the form appended below:
Comparison
of the
average
salaries
Comparison and fringe
of the benefits
average for NCSC
starting staff after
salaries five years
and fringe of service
benefits with those
Current Current for for civil
Departments number number NCSC staff servants
employing of of with those after
NCSC NCSC civil for civil five years
staff Grade staff servants servants of service
----------- ----- ------ -------- ---------- -----------
Department Grade 1
A Grade 2
Department Grade 1
B Grade 2
(b) as the Civil Service Bureau is reviewing the situation of NCSC staff with the relevant departments, whether consultation meetings will be arranged for these staff or the representatives of their staff unions to reflect their views; if so, of the detailed arrangements for such consultation meetings; if not, the reasons for that ?
Reply:
Madam President,
The Non-Civil Service Contract (NCSC) Staff Scheme, introduced in 1999, aims to provide Heads of Bureaux, Departments and Offices (hereafter shortened as HoDs) with a flexible means to employ staff on fixed term contracts outside the civil service establishment to meet service needs which are short-term or part-time, or subject to market fluctuations, or where the mode of delivery of the service is under review. HoDs have full discretion to decide on the appropriate employment packages for their NCSC staff, subject to the two guiding principles that the terms and conditions for engaging NCSC staff should be no less favourable than those provided for under the Employment Ordinance and no more favourable than those provided to civil servants in comparable civil service ranks or ranks of comparable level of responsibilities. The remuneration offered to NCSC staff is an all-inclusive pay package determined by HoDs having regard to various factors, including the employment market, the recruitment situation for the type of jobs concerned, and the pay offered to civil service recruits to comparable civil service ranks, etc.
With regard to the specific questions raised by Member, the Administration's replies are as follows:
(a) Given the nature of the NCSC Scheme and the need to maintain its flexibility, the Civil Service Bureau, as a matter of policy, is not involved in departments' employment of NCSC staff. In line with this policy, the Civil Service Bureau does not centrally keep detailed information on the employment of NCSC staff in individual departments. For overall monitoring of the NCSC Scheme, we collect from departments general information such as the number of NCSC staff employed, the range of salaries, contract duration etc. as at end June and end December each year. We have been providing the collated information to the Public Service Panel of the Legislative Council. Detailed information regarding the terms of employment and job duties of different NCSC staff is however not collected. Furthermore, there is no classification of NCSC staff by "NCSC grades" as they are employed outside the civil service establishment to meet time-limited or part-time service. It is therefore not possible to compare the terms of employment of different "NCSC grades" with those of civil servants.
As at December 31, 2005, there were 15,687 full-time NCSC staff employed in 68 bureaux/departments/offices. The number of NCSC staff and civil servants employed by each bureau/department, and the monthly salary range of the NCSC staff employed are set out at Annex.
(b) The purpose of the special review of the NCSC staff situation is to obtain a better understanding of the implementation of the NCSC Scheme in departments and their manpower requirements. Where it could be established that civil servants instead of NCSC staff should be employed to meet specific service needs, we would discuss and devise feasible measures with the concerned heads of department while ensuring that the size of the overall civil service establishment would remain under control. Given the scale of the review and the undertaking to complete it in six months, it would not be possible for the Civil Service Bureau to meet NCSC staff or the staff unions of individual bureaux/departments. However, NCSC staff and staff unions are welcome to reflect their views to the departmental management, or forward their views direct to the Civil Service Bureau. Their comments would be taken into account when we consider the appropriate way forward for managing the employment of NCSC staff.
Ends/Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:48
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