End
(b)
(c)
(d)
26
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more than half of them consider the employment conditions in elderly homes unsatisfactory, e.g. long working hour, heavy workload;
others claim personal reasons such as sickness, lack of interest in the job or working for the elderly.
(iii) The Social Welfare Department has received the first tranche of
applications for exemption from payment of indemnity in November. Applications are being processed. At present, no participants have been asked to pay indemnity for failure to comply with the undertaking.
(iv)
The Social Welfare Department has received 100 applications for exemption from payment of indemnity. To qualify for exemption, the applicant must provide sufficient proof that he has already tried his best but to no avail; or that he has personal reasons (e.g. health conditions) which results in his failure to get a job as a health worker.
According to the manpower requirement set out in the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Regulation, the overall demand for health workers is 1100, encompassing the demand from subvented, self- financing non-profit-making and private elderly homes. As at October 1996, there are 700 health worker vacancies in 558 elderly homes, as recorded by the Social Welfare Department.
The Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance and the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Regulation stipulate the ratio of nursing staff (including nurses and health workers) to elderly residents. However, it is not stipulated that the elderly homes must employ a fixed number of nurses or health workers. As reflected by the figures, there is a large number of health worker vacancies which means that health workers have good employment opportunities.
Since the introduction of the courses in August 1995, the Social Welfare Department has constantly reviewed the course with the organisations in order to make appropriate improvements. The Social Welfare Department will conduct an overall review in mid-1997 when all the courses are completed so as to determine the necessity to offer more
courses.