Hospital Staff To Lose Pay Over February Strike

Hospital staff who took part in a strike in February to demand the closure of the border with the mainland are having pay deducted for the time they were off.

The Hospital Authority (HA) said on Friday that it has decided to make salary deductions for the 7,000 or so doctors, nurses and other workers who were absent from duty without authorisation, but there would not be any disciplinary action.

"The HA believes that this arrangement has addressed the staff absence matter in a reasonable, lawful and fair manner," said authority chairman Henry Fan.

"The board also decided that there would not be any other human resources follow-up arrangement."

Fan said the authority made the decision after considering legal advice, the Employment Ordinance and staff morale.

Hospital staff took part in the strike from February 3 to 7, in an attempt to force the government to seal the border to prevent Covid-19 from being brought in from the mainland where the outbreak began.

The authority spent months seeking legal advice and issued letters demanding explanations from staff who had been absent from duty.

The organiser of the strike, the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance, had accused the authority of threatening its members, saying they had only taken part in legal industrial action.

The union's vice chairman, Ivan Law, said on Friday that the HA's decision was the result of a united front by members.

"This is quite mild, and no other punishment under HR policies," he said, "I think this shows us the power of uniting all the members and doing the industrial action in the same way that all the participating members reply in the same way."

Law said the union would still have to discuss with members whether to accept the arrangement.