On this day 20 years ago, Hong Kong reduced the working week from 5.5 days to 5 for the city’s government staff
1-MIN READ1-MIN ListenSCMPPublished: 11:30am, 3 Jul 2026This article was first published on July 3, 2006.
Civil servants can work more efficiently and serve citizens better by not having to work on Saturdays, the city’s 6.9 million residents have been promised on the eve of implementation of a five-day week.
The new working week would also help save citizens time and travel expenses if they switched to using services by fax, mail or internet, Civil Service Secretary Denise Yue Chung-yee said yesterday (July 2, 2006).
People will have a year to get used to the new working week, which begins in selected departments tomorrow, before it is implemented in all government offices. Ms Yue told RTHK’s Letter to Hong Kong the government understood public concern that the five-day week policy could harm the city’s competitiveness.
She pledged that the public would be consulted as the policy was phased in and that “the total hours of work of all government staff will remain unchanged”.
“Following months of meticulous preparation, we are all set to bring in the new style of operation in the government,” she said. “We are confident that the five-day week arrangement will enhance efficiency and enable us to serve [the citizens] better.
