Professor Chen was commenting on a proposal from the Local Crown Counsel Association that the Legislative Council consider passing a private member's bill to freeze the decision to allow expatriates to switch terms.

The Government announced a month ago that expatriate civil servants could switch to local terms if they were willing to give up their perks and could meet certain conditions.

Many expatriates' contracts are not being renewed because of the administration's localisation policy.

Yesterday, Legco public service panel convenor Tam Yiu-chung said the panel would discuss the private member's bill proposal next Thursday. The Secretary for the Civil Service, Anson Chan Fang On-sang, would be invited to discuss the draft bill.

Professor Chen warned Legco that it should try to resolve the row through other means.

In a letter to the panel dated August 25, the then Acting Governor, Sir David Ford, did not address members' calls to shelve the new policy.

A total of 42 legislators wrote to him early last month, asking him to put off the decision.

But Sir David reassured members that the new policy was an interim measure.

''I believe that it would be more fruitful to focus attention on what the long-term policy should be, rather than to expend a lot of energy on this short-term, very limited measure,'' he said.

The decision to allow a switch in terms has infuriated local civil servants, but Professor Chen said they should think more carefully.

''Local civil servants should study the change in a more detailed manner to see whether they would benefit if it were not introduced.'' He said: ''The new policy actually creates some new hurdles for them [expatriates]. They'll have to naturalise themselves and the renewal of their contracts will be based on their past performance as well as the availability of local staff to replace them.'' The Association of Expatriate Civil Servants (AECS) will decide at an emergency meeting tomorrow whether to go ahead with legal action against the Government, after the revelation on Tuesday that three expatriates who had applied to switch had been rejected.

The Civil Service Branch said it had received 12 applications in all - nine are being considered - and is expecting 20 more.

The branch did not give specific reasons why the three applications were turned down, apart from saying the officers did not fulfil the requirements.

AECS president Royston Griffey said yesterday that if the heads of department recommended rejection of applications, the association might have to sue them.

It seemed the policy change was not off to a very good start.

''If we are certain that the localisation policy is still being implemented behind the mask of something else, like service needs, we have no choice but to go to court,'' he said.

One officer who has been given a 90-day extension of his contract, senior structural engineer Peter Pitt-Jones, said he was more frustrated than before.

''I have stopped applying for other jobs and don't know what to do now,'' he said. ''There is still no clear indication if the new policy will be implemented or not and I just feel like I am now hanging in the air.'' Local staff have already decided to sue the Government over the policy change. A battle fund is being set up and leading counsel have reportedly expressed interest.