HOMES for the elderly, juvenile correction institutes and rehabilitation centres were among more than a dozen facilities hit by strike action yesterday as social work assistants launched a campaign for better pay.
The Social Welfare Department was forced to redeploy staff to cover for assistants who began a three-day stoppage at midnight on Sunday.
Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants' Association officials claimed more than 250 assistants had staged a series of sit-ins at centres across the territory, but the department claimed that half that figure took part.
Social work assistants (SWA) branch chairman Lai Wing-shing said the action had been effective so far because normal routines were disrupted.
He claimed that girls at Ma Tau Wei Girls' Home had been cooped up in dormitories unable to follow normal timetables because of lack of supervision.
But the department claimed its redeployment of staff had maintained services.