Extra benefits for civil servants working during outbreak

Civil servants will either receive financial compensation or holiday hours for working overtime during the June 18 Covid-19 outbreak, a government official has told a lawmaker.

In his reply to lawmaker Ron Lam’s written inquiry, Kou Peng Kuan, director of the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP), based his advice on a set of general rules governing civil servants.

In addition to this, Kou noted that if special regulations are established to govern certain bureaus or entities, these regulations should prevail.

Kou added that pursuant to the same general rules, if public service entities need to close, the Chief Executive can exempt civil servants from work, but the exemption will not affect entities that are consistently in service.

“Under this situation, civil servants providing services will have the right to obtain compensation in accordance with the law,” Kou emphasized in his reply.

Despite the Chief Executive ordering all public service entities to shut down during the June 18 outbreak, a reply signed by the Macao Customs Service, as cited by Lam, suggested that the order did not equate to exempting “[civil service] workers in general” from work.

Based on this, the Customs Service has said Customs officers who worked during the public service closure will not be additionally compensated. AL