CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
The Court of Appeal handed down its judgement on November 22, 1996, which overturned some aspects of the High Court judgement and ruled several decisions of the government as unlawful. Having considered legal advice that there is no reasonable chance of success in a further appeal on those major decisions, the limited impact of the judgement on the localisation policy of the Civil Service and the interests of all parties concerned, the government decided not to appeal further to the Privy Council. Instead, it will work closely with the staff side to find workable solutions that will give effect to the judgement in a way that is fair to all and upholds the localisation policy.
As a long-term measure, after wide-ranging consultation, the government has proposed introducing a uniform set of terms of appointment and conditions of service for all staff to remove the differences between local and overseas terms and conditions for new appointments and to converge with the Basic Law. The proposals were passed to the Chinese side of the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group in November 1994 for discussion.
Some of the proposals have already been implemented, including the requirement of Chinese language proficiency for appointment on P&P terms and the cessation of overseas education allowance to new recruits who are offered appointment on or after August 1, 1996. The remaining proposals are the subject of discussion with the Chinese side.
The Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance will come into force in late 1996. It places a statutory duty on data users to comply with the requirements of six Data Protection Principles, based on internationally-accepted standards, and applies also to the government. It also gives data subjects certain rights, including the right to be informed of whether any data user holds their personal data, to be supplied with a copy of such data and to request correction of any data they consider to be inaccurate. A procedural guide on the processing of employment-related personal data has been issued for the guidance of all data users in the Civil Service. It reminds all data users to bear in mind, when collecting, using, handling, storing and transmitting personal data, that the interests of the individuals who are the data subjects should be a primary concern.
The government values regular communication and consultation with staff. There are four consultative councils at the central level: the Senior Civil Service Council, the Model Scale 1 Staff Consultative Council, the Disciplined Services Consultative Council and the Police Force Council. More than 80 consultative committees operate at the departmental level. A Civil Service Newsletter is published quarterly to provide an added link with serving and retired civil servants.
Staff commitment and contributions are recognised in various forms including appreciation letters, commendations and honours or awards. Long Service Travel Awards, Long and Meritorious Service Awards and retirement souvenirs are given to long-serving staff. Civil servants demonstrated their community spirit and gave strong support to the Dress Casual Day charity event organised by the Community Chest on September 27, 1996. Some 5 000 civil servants also raised $1.7 million in 1996 for the Community Chest under an employee contribution programme.
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