117
(APPENDIX IV)
GENERAL CONDITIONS OF SERVICE.
Salaries are quoted indifferently in £s or $s at the rate of $10 to the £1. They are paid in £s when a member of the staff is out of the Colony (except in the case of temporary absence in the Far East). When a member of the staff is in the Colony he is paid in $s, save when the value of the $ falls at the end of any mouth below 2/-, in which case the equivalent of the salary in £s is paid in $s at the current rate of exchange.
Full first-class passages (up to a maximum equal to the P. & O. fare) are paid for a member of the staff, his wife and his children under sixteen, when travelling to take up an appointment and on final retirement in due course, save where it is expressly stated that second class passages only will be paid. Provided that in the case of Junior Lectureships, applications for which are restricted to bachelors, no passages for a wife or children will in any case be paid either for the voyage out or, in the event of retirement at the end of the first contract-period for the voyage home. Half sterling salary is paid during the journey out and full sterling salary is paid on the homeward voyage (the duration of which is taken at six weeks) when a member of the staff retires on the satisfactory completion in due course of a contract of service for a term of years.
Members of the staff are entitled to free quarters or to a house allowance. In the case of a junior lecturer serving on a first contract, bachelor quarters will generally be available and any house allowance will be at the rate proper for a bachelor. The number of quarters available for married members of the staff is insufficient, and house allowances are at the rates fixed by the Council, some regard being had to the rate at which corresponding allowances are fixed in the Government service. Quarters in the University compound carry free water and (up to a reasonable maximun) free electric light.
There is at present no income-tax, in the Colony and there are no rates or taxes in the usual English sense.
All salaries are subject to a deduction of 5% in respect of superannuation, to which the University adds 10% of the salary. The fund thus formed may, at the option of the member of the staff be accumulated either in dollars or in sterling, the rate of interest in the first case being 6% per annum, with half-yearly rests, and in the second case 5% per annum, but the sterling figure may in certain events be subject to reduction. The entire sum accumulated can be withdrawn on retirement, either at the end of a contract other than the first or after the completion of 15 years' service or on attaining the retiring age of 60, or from ill-health, or on leaving, with the consent of the Council, to take up another appointment. It is equally payable in case of death. In other cases, a member of the staff's own accumulated contributions are alone payable. Facilities are offered for keeping down premiums on life policies out of superannuation contribution. The exact details of the scheme are to be found in the superannuation regulations. There is a general age limit for retirement of 60 years. A member of the staff serving on a permanent contract can retire at any time on giving six months' notice.
Persons desirous of appointment must form their own estimate of the cost of living in the Colony and of the value of any given salary. It may be of help to ba- chelors in forming that estimate to know that at the present moment (May 1923) the inclusive charge for messing at the Hongkong Club (which, however, too far distant from the University for regular use) is at the rate of $60.00 a month.
(APPENDIX IV)
Other conditions of service are intended to be governed by general regulations, liable to alteration from time to time by the University Council.
There is a general obligation on members of the staff to take part in internal University examinations, at present without payment, and also to take part in conducting the Matriculation and Local Examinations, payment in the latter case being made according to a scale fixed by Council.
Owing to the difficulty of replacing members of the staff absent on long leave, members of the staff in service are required to assist in
any reasonable way
in carrying on the teaching work of the University, and may in this connection be required from time to time to deliver lectures on subjects of which they have a sufficient knowledge but which are outside the work for which they are primarily engaged. It is a rule of the University that for such additional work no special payment is made.
Members of the staff are not entitled to take outside work without the author-
isation of the Council.
The first contract does not carry the right to long leave, but upon renewal of the contract the time already served counts for long leave in the future. So far as the exigencies of the service permit, the long leave granted (which is on full sterling pay) approximate to 9 months leave (in which a long vacation is included) after 4 years of actual service. Full passages (up to a maximum equivalent to the P. & O. return fare) are at present paid for members of the staff, their wives and children under sixteen when proceeding on and returning from long leave.
Members of the staff, are generally speaking, free to travel in the Far East during the summer long vacation, though the conduct of the summer Matriculation Examination may to some extent limit this right. In the Engineering Faculty, members of the Facuity may be required to take charge in rotation of the engineer- ing plant during the summer months. It should perhaps be stated that hotel ex- penses in the Far East are at present decidedly high.
The University is in principle a residential University, and in this connection there are posts of Warden of Students' hostels (at present three in number) which carry certain small emoluments. Facilities are available for participation in various forms of athletics, and it is an advantage when members of the staff are able so to participate.
The winter climate of Hongkong is thoroughly agreeable and the summer climate, though hot and sometimes damp, is not actually unhealthy.
While it is the general policy of the University to secure uniformity of salaries as between different faculties, certain exceptions are and may be made when higher salaries are necessary to attract candidates for particular posts. As the rules of the Government service are for certain purposes referred to above, it should be expressly stated that there is no general right to claim Government conditions of service and that Government rates of pay (which vary considerably from Department to Department) are not followed.
May 1923.
END
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