A flexible solution to keep Hong Kong working (25 May 2006)

Hong Kong is one of the hardest-working cities in the world. We're famous for the number of hours we spend behind our desks, our inability to leave the office before the boss and spending too little time at home with our families.

It is understandable, therefore, that the government should introduce a five-day week for civil servants, to encourage people to change their priorities and spend more time with their partners, children and friends.

A five-day week is being phased in for some 60,000 civil servants from July, in a scheme that will be extended to more than 90,000 within a year. The move will have implications for businesses and citizens around the city. But is the government going about it the right way?

The principle of a shorter working week is commendable. By giving weekends back to the people, we can create a happier and more harmonious society.

However, it is important that we don't stand in the way of the day-to-day business of Hong Kong or the needs of our citizens. A five-day week is all well and good for civil servants, but if it makes life more difficult for other sections of society, it may be counter-productive.

The first civil servants to be given a five-day week will be those offering in-house professional and administrative services, and offices that provide services to the public that the government says are not in great demand on Saturdays.

Those services include written driving tests and the licensing of vehicles by the Transport Department, non-emergency medical services, Inland Revenue and Rating and Valuation Department counter services, management and maintenance services at public housing estates, and applications for public housing.

They also include a range of business services, such as textile licensing, the issuing of certificates of origin, and Food and Environmental Hygiene Department licensing services. All non-essential services that we can surely live without for two days of the week - or are they?

While we all agree in the principle of making our working week less arduous, is this rigid enforcement of a five-day week in the narrow confines of the civil service really the best way forward?

There will be many who will not thank the civil service for closing its doors on Saturdays. What, for instance, of the trader rushing to complete an urgent order so it can be signed off and shipped at the weekend in time to meet his deadline? What, for instance, of those who work Monday to Friday on the mainland and can only visit government departments and banks on Saturdays when they are back home in Hong Kong? What of those whose weekdays are so consumed with work that the only time they have to sort out their paperwork and drop into government offices is on a Saturday morning?

These are not imaginary scenarios. People have already written to us and said they are worried about the impact a five-day civil service week will have on their lives.

Hong Kong people are, by nature, hard-working. They are, by nature, achievers. They are not clock-watchers, and they are not nine-to-fivers.

I believe we would be better off being flexible and adjusting our working week in a way that better suits our needs - in a manner that is more in keeping with Hong Kong lifestyles.

Civil servants should work the equivalent of a five-day week but in shifts, to keep the city ticking over on Saturday mornings.

We could all do with more time with our families, but we need to create that extra time in a way that will preserve the dynamism that makes Hong Kong the vibrant, productive city it is, every day of the week - not just from Monday to Friday.