Failure of talks set to be explained
OFFICIALS will attempt next week to explain the failure of 10 months of negotiations with local civil servants over policies allowing expatriates to switch to their terms.
A five-page paper will be given to the Legislative Council on Wednesday, when it has to decide whether to extend the private member's bill which has frozen the policy allowing expatriates to switch terms.
Secretary for the Civil Service Michael Sze Cho-cheung said yesterday: ''The Government hopes the Legislative Council will decide not to extend the bill.
''The bill was passed to give time for the Government to discuss with expatriate and local unions the localisation policy. And we have already had discussions for six months. Even further discussion will not help,'' said Mr Sze, although he refused to say he had given up hope.
The Post has learnt the discussions became deadlocked over the requirement for expatriates to be demoted before being approved for a transfer.
Mr Sze offered a compromise to the Association of Expatriate Civil Servants (AECS) and the Senior Non-Expatriate Officers Association (SNEOA) on March 31, allowing more lenient conditions than those proposed by the SNEOA for expatriates to transfer.
AECS president Roston Griffey said he had accepted the bottom-line proposal described by Mr Sze, but SNEOA president John Luk Woon-cheung had rejected it.
In Beijing, senior Chinese official Qian Qichen assured civil servants their jobs would be safe after 1997 despite the Sino-British row over localisation.
Mr Qian, Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister, said the breakdown affected only the transition of the Legislative Council, the two municipal councils and the district boards.
The Governor would be replaced by the Chief Executive of the Special Administrative Region, but civil servants could stay on, said Mr Qian.
