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• Unions tell staff not to enforce smoking ban ($$) 

A government department's staff union has made a last-minute appeal to its members not to enforce the city's smoking ban - which is being extended today - but to perform only their original duties.

"We've issued a statement to our members, urging them to do our original duties," said Gary Cheung Siu-wing, chairman of the Leisure Service Staff General Union. . . .

Starting from today, 2,200 staff from the Leisure and Cultural Service Department, 700 from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and 430 from the Housing Department will be responsible for handing out fixed-penalty tickets to those who smoke in premises and venues under their management - such as libraries, wet markets, beaches and housing estates.

Cheung doubted if they had the legal right to issue the tickets, because over 90 per cent of them still had not got the new departmental warrant card. "Because it's an extra duty ... we need to have the warrant card before we can enforce the new ban," Cheung said.

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