Hospital Support Staff Plan Action Over Wage Talks

Public hospital support staff plan to hold a sit-in at the Hospital Authority's (HA) headquarters on Thursday after pay talks broke down on Tuesday.

They are demanding a 12 per cent across-the-board salary rise for more than 20,000 patient care assistants, operation assistants and other support staff.

The authority is only offering a maximum five per cent rise for patient care assistants, depending on their length of service.

It said if their annual increase of about 2.5 percent is taken into account, they could get an increase as high as 7.5 percent.

Pang Fei-chau, the HA's human resources head, says a consultancy study on pay rises for other supporting staff is still under way.

Anger among support staff was triggered by a HA plan to raise the starting salary of new patient care assistants by up to nine per cent, in a bid to attract more workers amid a shortage of manpower.

Public hospitals have been in the spotlight in recent months, with many operating near capacity - or over capacity - during the peak winter flu season.