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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
ment's Leisure Services Branch without involving other Divisions/Branches of the Department.
(e) Successful Recruitment
Contract lifeguards are entitled to end-of-contract gratuities which are equivalent to 25% of their income during the contract period. This has been a key factor for the success in recruiting contract lifeguards in these years.
The disadvantages of employing contract lifeguards are:
(a) More administrative workload
This refers mainly to the recruitment work involved for contract renewal, arrangement of medical examinations, taking out insurance, etc. for appointment of contract lifeguards.
(b) Morale among pensionable lifeguards
With the increased employment of contract lifeguards, the establishment of pensionable lifeguards is correspondingly reduced. In view of their diminished size and hence their negotiating power, some pensionable lifeguards claimed that their morale was adversely affected.
(c) Job security
To some Contract Lifeguards, particularly those whose performance is less than satisfactory, employment on contract terms is not secure. However, such feelings are uncommon among the contract staff themselves as some prefer to have short-term employment (and reaping the gratuities) before bridging over to other careers.
The answer to the second part of the question is that there is no serious wastage problem in respect of Contract Lifeguards. For example, in the 1994 swimming season, of the 123 Contract Lifeguards employed by the Council, only 13 left for various reasons. Four out of these 13 ex-contract lifeguards were appointed as permanent lifeguards in the Regional Council.
For the third part of the question concerning recruitment of Contract Lifeguards, the answer is that there is no major difficulty in the recruitment of Contract Lifeguards. The target recruitment for additional Contract Lifeguards for 1995 is 32. As at June 1995, 21 had already reported for duty. Another 11 have already been offered employment and their appointments are being processed at different stages, for example, awaiting the outcome of their medical examination results. There are still 24 candidates on the waiting list.
As to the last part of the question, the Regional Council has never recruited contract lifeguards and there was no question of a change of policy resulting in wastage of Urban Council contract lifeguards to the Regional Council for appointment as their pensionable lifeguards. Moreover, the four Urban Council contract lifeguards who left to join the Regional Council as pensionable lifeguards in 1994 in no way constitutes a trend of loss of experienced Urban Council contract lifeguards to the Regional Council.
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