Clear case to extend retirement age of new civil service recruits
I refer to Mike Rowse's column ("Cut out the bureaucracy for retirement policy to work", April 14).
In the face of the demographic challenges arising from an ageing population and a shrinking labour force and in anticipation of a higher wastage of civil servants in the coming decade, the Civil Service Bureau has conducted a study to assess the manpower and retirement situation of the civil service in the coming years.
We see a clear case for extending the retirement age of new recruits.
However, the findings of our study indicate that there may be a need for individual grades or departments, but not the entire civil service, to further employ serving officers on a selected basis beyond their retirement age.
On the other hand, we are mindful that an across-the-board extension of the retirement age of serving civil servants on a voluntary basis may give rise to a manpower mismatch between the expertise/aptitude required by grades/departments and the skill-sets/performance of those who are willing to serve beyond their retirement age.
Unlike the situation when the retirement age of civil servants was raised from 55 to 60 in 1987, we do not anticipate such a rapid expansion of the civil service establishment in the coming years.