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"But our proposals will ensure that demotees will be given a fair chance to compete for promotion on their own merits. We also propose to mitigate their financial loss by granting them personal salaries, increments and other conditions of service as if they had not been demoted," she explained.
"And we propose to reconvene promotion boards where the results have not yet been announced to re-consider the claims of transferees who have previously been excluded because of the promotion restriction. But promotion results which have already been announced will remain intact. Indeed, the Court of Appeal has stated that those promotions are lawful."
The Government also took the opportunity to propose modified arrangements for the transfer of agreement officers serving on local terms to local P&P terms. According to the proposals, applications from all agreement officers on local terms, including transferees, will in future be considered against criteria which include Chinese language proficiency, long-term service need, performance and conduct as assessed by a formal board, and physical fitness.
"Transfer to P&P terms means committing oneself to a long-term career in the civil service. Accordingly, an applicant must convince us that he/she will be able to meet the needs of the service not only within the span of a few years, as in the case of agreement officers, but in the many years ahead.
"And that is why we need to specify a Chinese language requirement for transfer to the permanent establishment. This is in line with our policy commitment to develop a biliterate, trilingual civil service and to meet our operational need in the long term. Exactly what the level of proficiency should be will be determined by the individual Heads of Departments/Grades and Civil Service Branch will provide guidelines to them," Ms Lee said.
The new arrangements for transfer to P&P terms will not apply to applications received from local agreement officers before October 31, 1995 when transfer to local P&P terms was temporarily suspended. Transferees who transferred to local terms before October 31,1995 can also apply to transfer to P&P terms under the criteria prevailing before the suspension.
For agreement officers who wish to renew their agreement on local terms, the existing policy will remain unchanged. Heads of Departments/Grades will continue to be given the discretion to decide whether or not a Chinese language requirement should be specified having regard to job requirements over the period of the agreement.