Our employees are well informed of their rights and privileges. In addition to timely briefings and workshops, a formal mechanism for consultation and dialogue between staff and executive management is implemented through the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) and the Staff Consultative Council (SCC), both established in the 1980's. The JCC provides the communication platform between the non-managerial staff and supervisors where work-related issues and matters of local common interests can be discussed and resolved. The SCC, comprising elected JCC representatives, brings together in dialogue employee representation and senior management to address broader policy issues such as employment terms and conditions, corporate interests, and most recently the rail merger. The Unions also serve as a conduit for staff management consultation and dialogue in particular those issues affecting non-managerial levels of the organisation. The Corporation does not have a policy on collective bargaining as it is a voluntary initiative under Hong Kong Law. In consideration to our track record as an employer, the existing formal communications channels continue to be as effective when negotiating. The introduction of collective bargaining mechanisms would at this point not be an improvement on current practices. Nonetheless, the Corporation is open to this mechanism in future.
Complementing the formalised consultation processes, employees enjoy various channels to communicate with and be heard by senior management, supervisors and each other. Such tools as the monthly MTR Express magazine, the corporate intranet, divisional newsletters, internal memos and, increasingly, cross-division group activities serve to promote dialogue and empower employees to share work issues and seek constructive solutions. Our CEO and senior executives pointedly meet informally with staff to encourage dialogue and identify contentious issues well before crisis stage.
Rail Merger
The rail merger has increased the number of staff unions to six representing some 26% of total employees, principally those in front-line positions. These unions have been instrumental in the consultation process and agreement of the numerous staff issue changes relevant to employment under the merged organisation. They will take a leading role in the continued dialogue and consultation with relevant staff during the next phase of implementation, which will change some conditions in employment and restructure remuneration to align with the new unified employment package developed. All Company-employed staff are given the freedom to join these unions and to use them as their representative.
Staff have also been briefed regularly during 2007 though direct communications from company management. Director and CEO briefings and in-house media bulletins kept staff informed as to progress and decisions for the merger. A large number of inter-company seminars and gatherings were also staged to promote cultural and technical team integration.
As with any major corporate reorganisation, redundancies and job re-profiling are to be expected. The Corporation launched in 2007 a Voluntary Separation Scheme that fairly rewarded those staff electing to leave. We also enhanced ongoing redeployment practices to mitigate the impacts of identified redundancies and to optimise new vacancies anticipated.
It is the policy of the Corporation to promote from within first. In view of the new job skills required, training of existing staff is a priority. In the event of a retrenchment, career transition services are made available to individual staff and managed by an externally appointed HR consulting group. To meet staff's different needs, the consultant provides a wide range of services from group seminars to one-on-one coaching. These include career planning, career review and direction, market skilling, interview and presentation skills, job search techniques, retirement planning, financial planning and counselling.
