University of Hong Kong dragging its feet on talks to extend retirement age, union says

The University of Hong Kong is dragging its feet on calls to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65, a staff union says, even though the government and other tertiary institutions have done so.

Management under executive vice-president Dr Steven Cannon entered dialogue with the three staff unions in February last year. But communication ceased after June with no answer to repeated calls to reopen discussions over staff pleas to be allowed to work an extra five years, said the president of the University of Hong Kong Staff Union, Stephen Chan Chit-kwai.

"Frankly speaking [the university's] lack of response is very disappointing," Chan said. "We've thought we were in dialogue with school management over issues, but it seems like what we thought previously as dialogue is only our wishful thinking … We may resort to other ways to put pressure on them now.

"They are dragging their feet - for whatever reason, the management somehow feel this will not be beneficial to the school."

Chan said with Hong Kong's fast-ageing population and declining working population, there would be a position vacuum especially among teaching and professorial staff - a problem that could be eased by extending the retirement age.

The government raised the retirement age for civil servants from 60 to 65 last year.