TNAG-1364-FCO40-1810-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1986 — Page 98

unreasonable.

statutory requirement for an employer

to make a payment to a dismissed employee, based on his

length of service, would achieve much the same

age and

result as

an employee's

compensation under unfair

entitlement to monetary

dismissal legislation while

avoiding the need for

for complex and expensive procedures

to establish that the dismissal had been unreasonable.

The long service payment proposals put forward

in this Employment (Amendment) Bill are aimed at the

older employee and take into account his length of

service as well as his age. An employee aged 40 or less

must have at least 10

least 10 years' service to

to qualify for a

long service payment. Above this age, the minimum

qualifying service is progressively reduced

to

obtain

that an

employee aged 45 or more requires only 5 years' service

to qualify. The rationale for progressively reducing

the period of qualifying service after the age of 40 is

that this age is generally considered to be the peak of

an employee's working life beyond which he will find it

increasingly difficult

alternative

employment. In the case of a manual

manual worker it

worker it is also

the age beyond which his energy and productivity become

harder to maintain. It is also felt

felt that a younger

employee who has spent ten of the most productive years

of his life with the same employer also deserves

recognition

for his

loyalty,

though

because

the