Speaking at the Legco on Monday, Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan, said around 137,200 civil servants were currently working on five-day week, an increase of 4 percent - or some 4,600 civil servants - when compared to the figure two years ago.

She added that there were still around 30,000 civil servants who could not work on a five-day week work pattern.

Yeung stressed that the five-day work week is a family-friendly employment practice, but the implementation of such an arrangement has to abide by four basic principles, including no additional staffing resources, no reduction in staff's conditioned hours of service, no reduction in emergency services, and continued provision of essential counter services on weekends.

DAB lawmaker Frankie Ngan Man-yu cast doubt on the plan, saying that authorities have failed to fully implement the arrangement for civil servants for 17 years since the five-day work week was first introduced within the administration.

He further questioned the possibility of promoting the five-day work week for society, in which the SAR government has failed to take lead on.

In response, Yeung said if authorities neglected all principles to blindly implement the five-day work week arrangement, also footing taxpayers with the extra cost, some government posts will see duplication of human resources, a move Yeung described as irresponsible.