Call for hold on expat contracts
CONTRACTS for expatriate civil servants should not be renewed until the controversy over the localisation policy has been settled in court, it was suggested yesterday.
Meeting Point chairman Anthony Cheung Bing-leung said the present policy could deprive expatriate civil servants of promotion chances and a court should determine if this was against the Bill of Rights.
Mr Cheung said if the Government went ahead with the new policy before a court ruling, it would mean the Government tacitly accepted the policy was against the Bill of Rights.
Under the new policy announced last Friday, expatri ates who have worked for seven years or more can apply for naturalisation to become Hong Kong residents and transfer their employment contracts to local terms.
Asked if Britain should consult China on the new policy, Mr Cheung said he was worried that it would only complicate the problem if China intervened and said the current issue was a domestic one.
Mr Cheung said the Government side-stepped the political reaction of Legco as the policy had been announced in its recess.
He said the problem should be debated widely in the political arena.
A Meeting Point member and legislator, Dr Leong Che-hung, criticised the Government's way of dealing with the local officials.
He said the Government should have consulted the local civil servants before announcing expatriates could transfer to local terms.
''It was not worth upsetting 17,000 local civil servants for just 2,000 expatriates,'' he said.
Meeting Point suggested that all the civil servants should be treated on an equal work, equal pay, basis.
Contracts should be renewed according to the Government's demand for manpower and should be terminated if hindering localisation, it said.
Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee of the Liberal Party said she felt there were some problems and questioned whether the purpose of localisation would be defeated if the new policy went ahead.
