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Leopold Chen

Matthew Cheng

Hong Kong’s self-financed postal service will switch from offering new employees permanent civil service contracts to two-year agreements from September, amid plummeting mail volumes and a worsening financial outlook.
The announcement by Hongkong Post on Tuesday sparked concern among some civil servants that the measure could eventually spread across other departments.
Announcing the decision, Postmaster General Leonia Tai Shuk-yiu said: “We must carefully plan our human resources, making timely adjustments to make sure our resources are properly used.
“We cannot offer permanent contracts to them, but we also understand that it will deal a great shock to them if we terminate their employment after probation. As a responsible employer, we wish to minimise the impact.”
Tai said that about 200 employees, who are set to complete their three-year probation after the cut-off period, would be affected.
Whether their contracts would be renewed after two years would depend on Hongkong Post’s operational needs at the time, she added.
During the contract period, the employees will still be regarded as civil servants and entitled to the relevant welfare benefits.
Other cost-saving measures would include reviewing the methods and frequency of mail deliveries, as well as optimising the post office network and operating hours, Tai said.
Hongkong Post currently delivers mail from Monday to Friday, but she said it would review whether that frequency remained necessary. It could also close underused post offices or reduce their operating hours.
Mail handled by Hongkong Post fell steadily from 1.24 billion items in 2018-19 to 611 million in 2024-25.

The government-owned postal service has recorded losses for eight years in a row. It has operated on a self-financing basis since 1995, when the Post Office Trading Fund was established.
Earlier this year, the Legislative Council approved a HK$4.6 billion (US$586 million) grant for the trading fund to support postal operations over the next three years, as authorities prepared a report on Hongkong Post’s long-term development road map.
On Tuesday, Tai said the trading fund had been set up to give Hongkong Post greater flexibility to use revenue from its commercial operations to offset the cost of meeting its universal postal obligations.
Officials previously told Legco that e-commerce accounted for nearly half of Hongkong Post’s annual revenue in 2020-21. But the proportion had fallen to about 25 per cent in 2024-25, equivalent to HK$700 million.
“Our operating environment has drastically changed,” Tai said.
“We will review which operating model suits Hongkong Post the best, including turning it into a government-funded service, creating a joint venture with the private sector or privatisation. We will consider all possible options.”
A postal worker on probation, who asked not to be named, said that he had joined the service in 2023 and felt desperate after Hongkong Post announced the new arrangement.
“It is not as if the department only discovered it was short of funds yesterday. Why did it still launch large-scale open recruitment?” he said.
He questioned the fairness of the move, given that colleagues who completed their probation earlier were still able to secure permanent positions.
“And what will happen after two years? Are we going to be unemployed?” he said.
The postal worker said he was expected to finish his probation by the end of this year, and feared he could just be laid off instead.
He noted that Hongkong Post had indicated the likelihood of staff receiving two-year contracts after finishing probation would depend on future developments.
A second postman said he had joined the service in 2024 in search of stability amid economic uncertainties and now felt completely at a loss.
“I have children and a mortgage to pay. I feel so insecure now that the department has suddenly refused to offer permanent positions,” he said.
“At the beginning, the department promised that we would be offered permanent contracts as long as we did not make serious mistakes. I think it has gone back on its word and shown no contractual spirit.”

Hong Kong Postal Workers Union chairman Cheung Wai-kuen on Tuesday called on the service to shelve the plan, criticising authorities for failing to consult staff before the decision was made and urging officials to negotiate with employees.
“We only found out about it at 4.30pm [on Monday] when a departmental consultation meeting was held. The affected colleagues were only told two hours earlier,” he said.
“For such a major policy change, shouldn’t there have been proper consultation? Why were colleagues informed [of the change] with just two hours’ notice?”
Cheung said affected staff resented the decision, which undermined frontline officers’ trust in management.
He added that probationary staff who declined the Hongkong Post’s offer would not be allowed to remain, and the service had also refused to guarantee any extension of their contracts after two years.
Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants’ Association president Tsoi Koon-lung said it was the first time a department had refused to offer permanent contracts to all probationary staff, sparking anxiety within the civil service and significantly undermining morale.
Tsoi noted that probationary staff contracts typically stipulated that they would be offered permanent positions upon successful completion of probation, and questioned the decision’s legitimacy.
“This measure causes a loss of mutual trust between civil servants and the management. Its cost outweighs the gains,” he said.
“In particular, staff in other departments will wonder whether the same approach will be applied to them in future. If the government is short of funds, it can simply stop offering probationary staff permanent terms and put everyone on contracts. This is very unfair.”
He added that there were more effective ways to control staff costs, including streamlining the organisational structure, freezing new recruitment and reducing the number of higher-paid senior staff.
Tsoi also rejected Hongkong Post’s explanation that it lacked the financial resources to offer permanent posts, stressing that its budget had already been allocated based on headcount.


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Hongkong Post scraps permanent contracts for new staff amid financial strain

The abrupt move by Hongkong Post has sparked concerns among civil servants. Photo: Jelly Tse. Photo: Jelly Tse

A decline in mail volume has prompted Hongkong Post to review staffing, delivery frequency and its network of post offices. Photo: Jelly Tse

Customers at the General Post Office in Central on Tuesday. Photo: Jelly Tse

The General Post Office building in Central. Photo: Jelly Tse

Hongkong Post will offer two-year contracts instead of permanent terms to about 200 staff who complete probation from September. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Hong Kong to keep ‘open mind’ on options for struggling postal service

 Hong Kong Post’s HK$821 million loss in 2024-25 was its biggest since 1995. Photo Jelly Tse

The Post Office at Windsor House in Causeway Bay. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Can Hongkong Post be saved or should it become a taxpayer-funded public service?

The General Post Office in Central. Hongkong Post faces mounting losses as calls grow to end its self-financing model. Photo: Nora Tam

The post office branch at Windsor House in Causeway Bay. The postal services operator plans to introduce revenue-generating and cost-saving measures as it struggles with a persistent deficit. Photo: Jonathan Wong

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Hong Kong

Society

Probationary staff to be offered two-year contracts under cost-cutting plans, including reviews of staffing, delivery frequency and branch closures


Probationary staff to be offered two-year contracts under cost-cutting plans, including reviews of staffing, delivery frequency and branch closures.


Hongkong Post

Hongkong Post scraps permanent contracts for new staff amid financial strain

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Probationary staff to be offered two-year contracts under cost-cutting plans, including reviews of staffing, delivery frequency and branch closures

Probationary staff to be offered two-year contracts under cost-cutting plans, including reviews of staffing, delivery frequency and branch closures