Annex

Family Care and Paternity Leave

1 In 2006, 12% of private sector establishments provided paid family care leave to majority of their employees, a 5% point jump from 2004. Although smaller establishments saw a marked increase in proportion granting such benefits, their share (11%) is still less than large establishments (23%).

2 More establishments (43%) granted paternity leave to their male employees as compared to 2004 (40%). The larger establishments were more likely to grant paternity leave with close to 70% of them doing so as compared to 39% among the smaller establishments.

Flexible Work Arrangements

3 In 2006, 5.3% of employees were on flexible work schedules covering part-time, flexi-time, staggered hours and teleworking. This was up from 4.1% in 2004 and 2.6% in 1998. About seven out of ten employees on flexible work arrangements (or 3.6% of all employees) were working part-time in 2006. The other forms of flexible working arrangements such as staggered hours, flexi-time and teleworking accounted for only 1.0%, 0.5% and 0.1% of employees respectively.

Workweek Pattern

4 The 5-day workweek is the norm, with higher share of employees now on this arrangement than two years ago. Close to two in five (40%) full-time employees in the private sector worked 5 days a week in 2006, up from 34% two years ago.

Lagging significantly behind, were the 5½-day (15%), 6-day workweek (16%), and shift work (17%) each accounting for less than one in five employees in 2006.

Annual Leave

5 It is common for employees to be accorded less than 15 days of annual leave, but the proportion is lower than over a decade ago, along with the rise in share of high skilled workers who typically enjoy more favourable leave benefits. In 2006, 33% of full-time employees were entitled to 15 to 21 days of annual leave, compared to 25% in 1992. Another 7% had more than 21 days, also up from 5% in 1992.

Sickness Absenteeism

6 Close to half (49%) of employees in the private sector took outpatient sick leave and only 4.1% took hospitalization leave in 2005. Employees who had taken outpatient sick leave in 2005, on average consumed 4.5 days of sick leave each.

The corresponding figure for those on hospitalisation leave was 15 days.