Whether or not judges from other common law jurisdictions would also be recruited or invited to join the magistracies, District and Supreme Courts should be clarified;
1.
Greater use should be made of the Chinese language in legal proceed- ings, although there were others who expressed concern about the difficulties involved; and
More judges of Chinese descent should be appointed to the Courts. This could be achieved by providing training on proficiency in Chinese, improving employment terms and the offering of career opportunities in the higher courts to local lawyers.
Section VI Public Service
4.18 This section has been extensively discussed throughout the whole of the Civil Service and at all consultative levels, including the Senior Civil Service Council, the Police Force Council, the Model Scale I Staff Consulta- tive Council, departmental consultative committees, or at special meetings in 56 departments. Forty-four staff associations have also submitted their views. Its provisions were found to be generally acceptable and comments have focused on:
-payment of pensions,
-employment of foreign nationals,
-protection and safeguards for officers occupying sensitive posts
after 1997.
4.19 Important points made were:
Arrangements should be made for civil servants not wishing to continue their service after 1997 but who have not reached retirement age. They should be given the option to retire early with pension;
Retirement schemes similar to provident schemes in the private sector should be set up as an alternative to the existing pension scheme and payment should be as of right;
Foreign nationals should continue to be employed in the Civil Service in specialist posts where need justified, and promotion should be based on merit and not on ethnic origin;
Localisation of the Civil Service should be speeded up to ensure that local officers acquire the necessary experience to enable them to fill the top posts;
Expatriate civil servants through their Associations requested that they should be suitably compensated if their career prospects were affected by the provisions in respect of the filling of the most senior posts; and
Arrangements should be made to protect civil servants occupying sensitive posts.
4.20 Other points raised:-
Any grade rendered redundant by the transfer of government in 1997 should be suitably compensated;
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