TNAG-1362-FCO40-1808-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1985 — Page 200

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14.

I should add

accumulated pension

that,

while statements of

rights are not issued, the Civil

Service should have no doubt about the payment of

pensions and gratuities. Section IV of Annex I of that

legally binding agreement, the Joint Sino-British

Declaration, provides that the future SAR Government will

pay all civil service pensions and gratuities, including

those already in payment in 1997. It also provides that

all pensions and gratuities payable to retired civil

servants ΟΙ to civil servants dependants will be on

terms no less favourable than before, and that they will

be paid irrespective of the beneficiary's nationality or

place of residence.

1

Contract Terms for Civil Servants

15.

Dr Henrietta Ip suggested that the Government

should promote the use of gratuity-bearing contract terms

for civil service employment. I should say at the outset

that the normal terms of employment in the Hong Kong

Civil Service are permanent and pensionable. In common

with most other civil services, in the British tradition

at least, the Hong Kong Civil Service is a career

service, based on the twin concepts of captivity and

security. It is self-evident, at least in my view, that

employment on permanent and pensionable terms is an

essential pre-requisite for the maintenance of the

impartiality and freedom from sectional pressures of the

Civil Service.