Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong says the Government is studying management views over the introduction of uniform requirements on leave management. He said any new measures, if proposed, will unlikely be implemented this year.

In a letter issued to the civil service today, Mr Wong said there is at present no general requirement on other officers to clear their accumulated leave balance periodically.

"Some officers have also encountered difficulty in obtaining approval to take leave due to genuine operational needs. As a result, many civil servants have accumulated a fairly large balance of untaken leave," he said.

The Government has drawn up some preliminary proposals to improve the administration of leave-taking and leave accumulation, and sought the views of departmental/grade management on their feasibility and related implementational issues.

October 1 tentative implementation date

Mr Wong said October 1 is a tentative implementation date for illustration of how the proposed measures will operate.

The consultation recently ended and diverse views over the introduction of uniform requirements on leave management was received from across different bureaus/departments and different grades and ranks.

"We are now studying the feedback in detail, with particular regard to the differences in workload and operational considerations among various bureaux/departments and various grades/ranks. It is likely that substantial changes will have to be made to our preliminary proposals to take account of operational and management considerations at the departmental level," he said.

Staff consultation to be launched

The Government will consult staff fully on any specific proposals in this regard in due course.

"Allowing time for our internal examination of the consultation feedback from departmental/grade management and the need for staff consultation, it is unlikely that any new measures, if proposed, will be implemented within this year," he said.

In the meantime, Mr Wong looks to departmental and grade management to plan and monitor the leave plans of their staff closely to ensure they take leave on a regular basis and avoid any unwarranted accumulation of leave balance.