- 20 -
Short term agreements
52. In the last year or so, to facilitate localisation, the Legal Department has only offered 2 year agreements rather than the 3 year agreements that are the norm in other departments. We have protested against this practice. It is very difficult for officers to plan careers and schooling for children with such a short horizon.
"Final" and "no-promotion" agreements
53. The recent Government practice of renewing some agreements on condition that the agreement is the last one or that the officer is not eligible for promotion should be reviewed and revised to be consistent with the results of a general review of the policy. The provision on non-eligibility for promotion conflicts with Article 103 of the Basic Law which stipulates that promotion shall be on the basis of qualifications, experience and ability, i.e. the best person for the job.
54.
A possible plan for the future
A plan based on economic, rather than ethnic, principles
If a general review of the localisation policy is undertaken, the following possibilities occur to us. There may be other acceptable approaches.
On recruitment -
(a)
(b)
the Government should re-assess on a regular basis whether overseas terms of service are needed or need variation;
if the Government is unable to recruit suitable candidates locally, consider offering overseas terms of service not just to overseas candidates, but also to local candidates, with the understanding that when the Government is able to find someone willing to work on local terms, the officer would be given the choice of remaining on those terms or leaving. If local candidates are recruitable on overseas terms, it would be an indication that the local terms are below the local market level and should be revised upward accordingly;
(c) the Government could consider, for employees hired in the future, making it a condition of employment that on attaining permanent residency status, the terms of service would change to local terms. This would only be sensible if the Government could retain such employees on the local terms or could replace them with others on local terms.