Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han on Friday wrote a post on his bureau’s Facebook page that also slammed the Social Workers Registration Board for allowing those who committed serious offences to remain in the profession.
“The board’s behaviour and decisions have … ignored the overall social interests, undermined the professionalism and public credibility of social workers,” he said on Friday.
The post was titled “Social work professional development: steady and long-term progress can only be achieved by following the right track”, and said some of the board’s decisions had deviated from amendments to the Social Worker Registration Ordinance introduced after Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong in 2020.
The amendments took effect on July 22, 2022, and prevent those convicted of offences that endanger national security from registering as social workers or continuing to work in the profession.
“But no concrete actions, including the establishing of a mechanism, have been taken to forbid people who were convicted of national security offence from registration as social workers for almost two years since the amendments were gazetted,” Sun wrote on Friday.
He added that some individuals were allowed to apply for registration or continue being social workers despite having committed offences that were serious enough to put their eligibility into doubt.
The Social Worker Registration Ordinance empowers the 15-member board to handle the registration of social workers, as well as disciplinary matters.
Eight of the board are social workers elected by their peers, with another six are appointed by the government. The director of social welfare is an ex officio member.
“The ordinance empowers the board to take charge of overseeing the professional conduct of registered social workers. It should always act in the best interest of the public,” Sun added.
The minister also cited the case of a social worker who had an ongoing court case for rioting charges but was still appointed to a panel of reserve members for the board’s disciplinary committee at the time, despite objections from their peers.
Sun also accused the board of voting to cease the implementation of a development scheme for social workers at the end of last year, as well as delaying government-suggested amendments to its code of practice over concerns about irregularities.
“All the incidents highlighted the need to enhance the governance of the board in order to better safeguard national security, protect the public interest and promote the orderly development of the social work profession,” he added.
