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Stella Lee

TERTIARY institutions might see large numbers of staff quitting to minimise losses caused by a new law on retirement schemes, a senior university employee warned yesterday.

  Vice-president of the Polytechnic University, Professor Joshua Wong Sook-leung, gave the warning as he joined a petition by more than 150 staff from tertiary institutions for an exemption from the law.

  More than 3,000 signatures were submitted to members of the Legislative Council's bills committee on the Occupational Retirement Schemes Ordinance.

  The bill will require all retirement schemes to be registered by October with 100 per cent solvency at all times - so that the schemes will be able to pay all staff entitlement at once.

  Without extra government funding, some universities with an insolvent fund will have to seek extra money from staff.

  Professor Wong said this would result in many employees quitting so they could get the benefits they were owed.

  Some universities have registered their schemes, but the Joint University Staff Associations working group on retirement schemes envisaged problems meeting the legal requirement.

  The bills committee yesterday said the exemption matter was outside its scope and suggested a joint meeting by the education and financial services panels.

  The Government did not preclude legislative amendments, but rejected the call for exemption.

  Deputy Secretary for Financial Services, Lessie Wei Chui Kit-yee, said exempting the universities would not solve insolvency problems arising out of generous retirement schemes.

  She said universities should not be bailed out with public money but instead negotiate with staff to reach an agreement.

  The staff say the law aims to protect employees from the sudden closure of a company, which was unlikely in the public-funded tertiary education sector.

  Legislator Jimmy McGregor asked the Government to consider the universities as a separate category which required a longer time span to become solvent than private company funds.

  Professor Wong said there was a possibility that the polytechnic retirement scheme would not be solvent even after the three-year grace period and would then be terminated.

  He said many new staff would be unwilling to join the revised scheme in light of the shortfall and the lack of new scheme members would make it difficult for the fund to become solvent.

  'If the scheme is scrapped, my loss would be in the order of several million dollars,' said Professor Wong who has served the polytechnic for 20 years.

  Professor Wong said tertiary institution heads should join the fight for an exemption or government funding injection.

  Mrs Wei recommended the universities pursue their proposals with the Education and Power branch and the University Grants Committee.



Tertiary staff exodus fear