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SCMP Reporter

NO more than 11 officers in the 10 government departments most affected by a new policy allowing expatriate staff to switch to local terms, can satisfy the 20-year residency requirement proposed by the Local Crown Counsel Association.

  The condition has been considered harsh by legislators and expatriate civil servants.

  The South China Morning Post has researched the number of overseas officers who can fulfil the requirement and found only 11 qualify.

  They include one officer each in the Legal Department and Legal Aid Department, two in Lands, five in Civil Engineering Services and two in Transport.

  No officers in the other five departments - Housing, Buildings, Intellectual Property, Architectural Services, and Environmental Protection - can meet the condition.

  But the majority of the eligible officers are in senior posts, with some in directorates including the Head of Lands Department, Bob Pope.

  Mr Pope joined the Government in February 1970 on contract terms and has remained on those conditions since then.

  When asked if he would choose to switch to local terms of service, he said yesterday that he was in no hurry to decide because his contract would not expire until 1996.

  But he admitted his entitlement to government quarters was the major factor he had to consider.

  He said he had chosen to remain on contract even though he had been given the chance to transfer to permanent and pension terms, because it would be too expensive to acquire the pension rights.

   ''Personally I don't see whether being in pensionable or agreement terms is significant. After all, the two are just terms of employment to suit different people in different ways,'' he said.

  Mr Pope said he recognised ''a contract was a contract'' and the Government had no obligation to renew it.

  ''I choose to stay on contract terms and the risk is mine, although I hope the Government will renew my contract.''   Regarding the language proficiency demanded by the Local Crown Counsel Association, Mr Pope said that would depend on the nature of the department.

  ''In my department, the requirement is probably not essential because all documents circulated are in English.

  He also indicated that working relations between locals and expatriates were extremely good in his department, and claimed people were blowing the problem out of proportion.

  Mr Pope expected only 10 expatriates to apply for the transfer.

  Another overseas officer fulfilling the residency requirement said he would not transfer to local terms because he would lose his housing allowance, which could mean having to leave Hong Kong.

  The officer, who refused to be named, also criticised the policy as a big mistake as it would only benefit senior officers who are still eligible for a housing allowance rather than middle-ranking staff.

  The officer added there was no language requirement in his contract. In addition, he did not have the time to study Chinese because his department was always understaffed.



Only 11 expats meet 20-year requirement on residency