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M.R.
L.P.
M.R.
A.W.
You may find staff are very unsettled with this
arrangement.
We have quite a large number of long term contract
staff now.
Every person in that situation has to ask himself
when is he going to settle down. In addition if he
has some long term commitments coming up say children's
education or something similar when he knows he
needs to be employed steadily for five years or so, then he may prefer to leave now and go for a job
where he knows he has continuity.
The Joint Declaration refers to arrangements which will come into effect some 13 years from now. Our
Permanent and Pensionable colleagues with their
employment guaranteed to 1997 and beyond can afford
to look to that date. However, Agreement Officers, with the renewal of their employment being decided
every 2 or 3 years, do not have the same perspective.
Although many of them would like to be working for the HK Government up to 1997 and beyond of more
importance and immediate concern is the prospect of a substantial number not having their contracts renewed
due to localisation. Localisation not only results
in reduced numbers of expatriates when it is desired by Government but it will force others to leave
voluntarily, and earlier than expected, because of
/P.7
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