Police unions say plan for raising retirement age discriminates against current officers

Police and civil servants say it should be up to them to decide - without a screening system - whether they can work beyond the retirement age.

And the four unions representing some 28,000 members of the police force said they would be discriminated against if the retirement age was extended just for new recruits, as has been suggested by the government.

Under a government proposal, only new recruits to the disciplined services would be able to continue working until the age of 57. The current mandatory retirement age for police is 55. But this could be extended to 60 if an annual test was passed.

Police and civil servants were invited to make submissions on the plan in a four-month consultation that ended on Saturday.

"As members of the disciplined forces, we feel that we are being discriminated against and demand that the administration allow all serving staff to work toward the designated retirement age, as other civil servants do," read a joint submission by the Superintendents' Association, Hong Kong Police Inspectors' Association, the Overseas Inspectors' Association and the Junior Police Officers' Association.

The unions also asked that all disciplined services staff be allowed to work until the age of 65.