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responsible for street cleansing duties for their failure to report to work punctually or unauthorised absence from duty. Among them, 1 person was reprimanded and received a salary deduction, 6 were served with written warning and the other 3 received verbal warning. According to the Personnel Section of the Urban Services Department, the Department currently has 1 616 street cleansing workers. So, the 10 disciplined workers only account for a small proportion of our manpower level.
As regards the second part of the question, the Workmen II who are responsible for street cleansing are MOD I staff of the Hong Kong Government. In general, they are employed on month-to-month terms. Since there may be conflict of interest because of their job nature, the Department would not permit them to take up rubbish collection or cleansing job in private premises on a part-time basis.
The third part of the question asks the Department whether there are any improvement measures to plug the loopholes in the present system of attendance register and staff supervision. Workmen II are deployed to work at different cleansing beats. Because of the nature of this kind of work, there may be individual workers who take the opportunity to loaf on the job. However, the Department has constantly reviewed the system of attendance register and staff supervision to make improvements. Spot checks are also stepped up at various cleansing beats to ensure that the workmen record the actual time on the attendance register. Moreover, the Department would punish the workmen concerned according to the nature of their dereliction of duty. If it is proved that there is any negligence in supervision, the Department will also take disciplinary action against the supervisor accordingly.
MR. CHAN KWOK-LEUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, there are loopholes in the attendance register system as some workers make dishonest entries in the register or sign on other's behalf. If their supervisors turn a blind eye to this, the attendance register is existing in name only. From Mr. Suen's reply, the number of offenses committed is small. The reason for this may just be that many of the offenses have not been discovered. With regard to spot checks mentioned in paragraph 4, I would like to ask, what grade of officers are responsible for the spot checks and were there any spot checks conducted on the signing of the attendance register in the past?
Mr. Suen Kai-cheong (in Cantonese):~In fact, this check mechanism has been in existence all along, at present, members of the Foremen grade are responsible for the job, whereas Health Inspectors would also conduct spot checks on the street cleaning work of the cleaning workers. Of course, the Department promises that in the future, monitoring of the attendance register and the checking process will be stepped up. In other words, a fixed number of checks will be conducted everyday and there will be regular checks for every street.
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responsible for street cleansing duties for their failure to report to work punctually or unauthorised absence from duty. Among them, 1 person was reprimanded and received a salary deduction, 6 were served with written warning and the other 3 received verbal warning. According to the Personnel Section of the Urban Services Department, the Department currently has 1 616 street cleansing workers. So, the 10 disciplined workers only account for a small proportion of our manpower level.
As regards the second part of the question, the Workmen II who are responsible for street cleansing are MOD I staff of the Hong Kong Government. In general, they are employed on month-to-month terms. Since there may be conflict of interest because of their job nature, the Department would not permit them to take up rubbish collection or cleansing job in private premises on a part-time basis.
The third part of the question asks the Department whether there are any improvement measures to plug the loopholes in the present system of attendance register and staff supervision. Workmen II are deployed to work at different cleansing beats. Because of the nature of this kind of work, there may be individual workers who take the opportunity to loaf on the job. However, the Department has constantly reviewed the system of attendance register and staff supervision to make improvements. Spot checks are also stepped up at various cleansing beats to ensure that the workmen record the actual time on the attendance register. Moreover, the Department would punish the workmen concerned according to the nature of their dereliction of duty. If it is proved that there is any negligence in supervision, the Department will also take disciplinary action against the supervisor accordingly.
MR. CHAN KWOK-LEUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, there are loopholes in the attendance register system as some workers make dishonest entries in the register or sign on other's behalf. If their supervisors turn a blind eye to this, the attendance register is existing in name only. From Mr. Suɛn's reply, the number of offenses committed is small. The reason for this may just be that many of the offenses have not been discovered. With regard to spot checks mentioned in paragraph 4, I would like to ask, what grade of officers are responsible for the spot checks and were there any spot checks conducted on the signing of the attendance register in the past?
Mr. Suen Kai-CHEONG (in Cantonese):~In fact, this check mechanism has been in existence all along, at present, members of the Foremen grade are responsible for the job, whereas Health Inspectors would also conduct spot checks on the street cleaning work of the cleaning workers. Of course, the Department promises that in the future, monitoring of the attendance register and the checking process will be stepped up. In other words, a fixed number of checks will be conducted everyday and there will be regular checks for every
street.
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