Civil service unions yesterday joined the annual march for the first time, calling on the government to respond positively to their members' demands.
The Federation of Civil Service Unions and three unions representing Leisure and Cultural Services Department staff sent about 140 civil servants to join the protest organised by the Civil Human Rights Front.
They aired opposition to the outsourcing of civil servants' work and what they saw as mismanagement by authorities, but said their participation was not related to pay cuts.
The unions said they had no plans as yet to join the march again next year, but would see how the government handled their demands.
Some protesters from the 11,000-member federation did not carry banners, chairman Leung Chau-ting said.
'We don't mean to provoke and oppose the government. We are here only to express our demands,' he said. 'Civil servants always wish to remain politically neutral, but the administration should respond to its staff's demands.'
