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In response to media enquiries on the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) arrangements for contract staff, a Civil Service Bureau spokesman said today (October 16) that in setting the end-of-contract gratuity for contract staff, the Government had taken into account such factors as the market situation, the competitiveness of the terms of employment and the retirement benefits.

"The end-of-contract gratuity therefore already reflects an element of retirement benefits," the spokesman added.

He said: "End-of-contract gratuity is not the employee's salary. It is payable only to a staff on satisfactory completion of the contract.

"In anticipation of the implementation of the MPF system, the Government has in contracts offered since December 1998 stipulated clearly that the end-of-contract gratuity payable, plus the mandatory MPF contributions to be made in respect of the officer by the Government as the employer will equal to the specified rate in the conttract," he said.

The spokesman stressed that there was no conflict between the new arrangements for provision of end-of-contract gratuity and the MPF Schemes Ordinance. The MPF contributions to be made and the gratuity to be paid by the Government would be fully vested in staff.

End/Monday, October 16, 2000

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