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Schedule 1 of the Bill also exempts a relevant employee who has been employed under a contract of employment for a continuous period of less than 30 days. This is in recognition of the fact that if an employee is going to resign, he is more likely to do so in the period immediately after he starts a job, so there is no point in incurring the administrative work of setting up a scheme for him. Some Members have asked whether it would be possible to extend the 30-day exemption period to 90 days, on the grounds that many employees give notice during that period. We have considered this, but do not think that such a long exemption period would be appropriate. To extend this period to 90 days would lead to contribution and benefit gaps where employees had a history of moving from job to job before the three month period was over. We do appreciate, however, that there may well be employees who give notice at the end of the first month of employment, and thus leave at the end of the second month. We shall therefore move an amendment to change the 30-day exemption period to 60 days. In the event that the employee remained in employment longer than that, then the employer would have to backdate both months' MPF contributions, while the employee would need to contribute only in respect of the second month's relevant income.
A final amendment on exemptions and coverage. We have always been aware that there will be particular classes of employees or self-employed persons whom it will be administratively difficult to bring into the MPF, at least in the early years. The Bill provides for such persons to be specified in Part II of Schedule 1, and there is provision for such specification to be varied, altered or repealed, i.e. when the administrative difficulty had been overcome, the classes of persons could then be brought under the MPF. We believe even at this stage that it will be administratively difficult, problematic for two particular groups to be brought into the MPF at an early stage. These are:
(a)
(b)
self-employed hawkers; and
domestic helpers, domestic employees, irrespective of their place of origin.
We shall therefore be moving an amendment to include both categories of worker as exempt persons under Part II of Schedule 1.
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