I REFER to your leader (South China Morning Post, November 1) concerning the difference between local and overseas conditions of service at tertiary institutions.
As secretary of the staff association at City Polytechnic I have been actively involved in the area of concern for the past three years, although this letter is written in a personal capacity, not an official one.
Academic and equivalent administrative grade staff at tertiary institutions, who make up about 35 per cent of all staff, are employed either on short-term contract (contract staff) or on permanent superannuative (superannuation staff) terms.
At City Polytechnic contract staff may be on local or overseas terms. Contracts are usually for two years, although these can be extended for one year or renewed for another two years. Staff, whether on local or overseas terms, who meet certain conditions are now offered superannuative contracts only on local terms only at the end of their contracts.
When the staff association at City Polytechnic last performed the exercise, at the end of 1993, the percentage of those on overseas terms was about 31 per cent. Of course, it was estimated that 70 per cent were not ethnically Chinese. However, when it comes to looking at the 104 who were on overseas terms and superannuated, the majority are ethnically Chinese.
In the last round of appointing superannuated staff, over 50 per cent who accepted local terms were not ethnically Chinese.
