********************************************************
Following is a question by the Hon Tommy Cheung and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Miss Denise Yue, on the Government's five-day week initiative in the Legislative Council today (February 15):
Question:
The Chief Executive indicated earlier at a Legislative Council meeting that a working group comprising representatives from the Civil Service Bureau, Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau as well as the Efficiency Unit would be set up to actively study the proposal of implementing the five-day working week in the Government from July this year and the specific implementation plan. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether the above working group will study if the progress of work undertaken by various bureaux and government departments will be affected by the implementation of the five-day working week, and whether additional manpower and resources will be required; whether five-day working week will be implemented where the findings of the study indicate that the above effects will arise and additional manpower and resources will be required;
(b) given that Saturdays will not be regarded as working days under the proposed five-day working week scheme, whether this will have any impact on the performance pledges made by various bureaux and government departments; how it will address the problem that the public can only transact business with various bureaux or government departments between Mondays and Fridays upon the implementation of the scheme, and whether the Government will assess the impact of implementing the scheme on the services provided by private organisations; and
(c) whether the Government will, after implementing the five-day working week scheme, extend the scope of the scheme to public and subvented organisations, and consequently increase the subsidies or funding to such organisations?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The working group set up by the Government, in collaboration with bureaux and departments, is examining the operational and staffing arrangements required to implement the five-day week initiative. Our primary concern is to maintain the overall level and efficiency of public service. We shall adhere to the following basic principles in taking forward this initiative:
* no additional staffing resources;
* no reduction in the conditioned hours of service of individual staff;
* no reduction in emergency services; and
* while in general all offices will cease operation on Saturdays, a limited number of essential counter services may continue to be provided on Saturdays.
We will consult staff through the various established channels in the formulation of the implementation details. The working group will co-ordinate and address the various issues in the planning process and report progress to the Chief Secretary for Administration. The Civil Service Bureau will brief the Legislative Council Panel on Public Service on work progress at an appropriate juncture.
(b) In pursuing the five-day week initiative, we will ensure that quality services will continue to be delivered to the community; we shall give due regard to the service needs of the private sector. We shall safeguard the overall level and efficiency of our public services. As there is no reduction in the conditioned hours of work of individual staff, we do not expect the implementation of the five-day week initiative would have any significant impact on performance pledges. For example, while certain non-emergency or non-essential services will cease operation on Saturdays, we will extend the working hours in weekdays as appropriate. Steps will also be taken to improve the delivery of services to the public, including, for example, a wider use of internet service, business process re-engineering and transferring enquiries and complaints services to the Integrated Call Centre which operates on a 24-hour basis. All these measures will ensure that the impact of the Government adopting a five-day week on the general public and the private sector will be minimal. We will keep under review the community's demand of public services, and make adjustments as necessary, after the implementation of the five-day week.
(c) We welcome initiatives by public and subvented organisations to examine the feasibility of introducing the five-day week in their organisations. They may determine the appropriate way forward, subject to the overriding principles that the overall service level and efficiency are maintained and that emergency services are not affected. The Government has no plan to increase the level of subvention to organisations that adopt the five-day week.
Ends/Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Issued at HKT 13:03
NNNN
