Hong Kong’s Civil Service Bureau announced measures to support postal workers affected by Hongkong Post’s recent decision to halt the awarding of permanent civil service contracts to about 200 employees on probation. Under a cost-cutting initiative aimed at addressing the postal service’s sustained financial losses, these workers will now receive two-year contracts instead of permanent positions.

In response to concerns over the future employment prospects of these staff, the bureau detailed plans to facilitate their transfer to other civil service roles. Affected employees will be fast-tracked in the recruitment process, bypassing initial shortlisting and receiving priority in tie-break situations when applying for alternative posts. Additionally, the government plans to introduce a special, one-off scheme allowing these staff to transition into assistant clerical officer or clerical assistant positions with lowered academic requirements. However, candidates will still be required to pass relevant skills tests and interviews. The details of this scheme are expected to be announced within the first quarter of next year.

The government has also assured that employees will not face pay reductions if the starting salary of their new roles is lower than their current pay. Those who have completed their probationary period at Hongkong Post will have a shortened probationary period of one year in their new appointments, rather than the standard three years.

Legislator Lam Wai-kong, representing the labor sector, said the government is considering reducing the minimum academic qualification threshold for applying to certain clerical roles. This would lower the requirement from passing five subjects in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education or the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination to passing three core subjects: Chinese, English, and mathematics. Lam noted that the focus on assistant clerical officer and clerical assistant positions stems from existing manpower shortages and the fact that recruitment in these grades is managed directly by the Civil Service Bureau, making it easier to implement targeted support.

Lam also highlighted that affected employees would gain the ability to apply for internal transfers to other departments, a privilege typically reserved for permanent civil servants. He welcomed the new measures, emphasizing that they provide more employment options and enable some postal workers who had originally transferred from other government departments to more easily return to their prior roles.

However, the Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants’ Association expressed reservations about the solutions. Association president Tsoi Koon-lung acknowledged that affected workers would still undergo open recruitment processes, including skill testing and interviews, to preserve fairness and standards. Nonetheless, he argued that the best resolution would be for the government to reverse its decision not to offer permanent contracts, a move he attributed to administrative policy.

Tsoi cautioned that some postal staff might lack competitiveness in applying for clerical roles they had not originally sought, despite their government experience potentially providing an advantage. “It depends on whether individual colleagues have sufficient competitiveness,” he said.

Hongkong Post, which operates on a self-financing basis, has been running deficits for eight consecutive years, posting a record shortfall of HK$821 million for the 2024-25 fiscal year. The department has maintained ongoing communication with affected workers and plans to provide skills training and timely support during this transition.