Over a hundred (129 to be exact) Hong Kong civil servants and 535 non-civil servant government employees have left or resigned last year, refusing to comply with the newly introduced oath-taking declaration-signing requirement by the Hong Kong government.
The Hong Kong government requires civil servants to take an oath or sign a declaration of allegiance to the Hong Kong authority under the Chinese Communist Party. This requirement was introduced last year and had been extended to cover non-civil servant employees as well.
Tsang Kwok-wai, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, revealed in reply to a written question during a recent sitting of the Legislative Council, that 129 civil servants who had ignored or refused to sign and return the declaration left their government posts last year.
Another 535 non-civil servant government employees, 149 full-time and 386 part-time, had also refused take the oath and left the government by last August, Tsang reported, before the oath-taking requirement took effect last September, to cover non-civil servants hired on or after July 1, 2020.
Tsang also emphasized that all 180,000 serving civil servants have taken the oath or signed the declaration, so have all the serving non-civil servants.
As at 31 December 2021, the numbers of full-time and part-time non-civil service contract staff were 10,319 and 6,899 respectively, while the numbers of full-time and part-time post-retirement service contract employees were 5,195 and 860.
When asked if he would look into requiring teachers in aided schools, employees of government-funded agencies and other public officials to take oath, and set a timetable for this requirement, Tsang said the government is actively formulating suitable implementation plans for oath-taking arrangements of other public officials, and will report the relevant situation to the Legislative Council as soon as possible.
Hong Kong passed an amendment bill last May, of the oaths ordinance, requiring district councillors to take the oath before office. Tsang also reported that all current district councillors have pledged their allegiance.
