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Following is a question by the Hon Tang Ka-piu and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (May 4):
Question:
One of the issues covered in a public consultation on retirement protection launched by the Government at the end of last year is the "offsetting" arrangement under the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) system (i.e. an employer may, under the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance (Cap. 485), use the accrued benefits derived from the contributions he made for an employee to an MPF scheme to offset the severance payment (SP) and long service payment (LSP) payable to the employee under the Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57)). Some wage earners have relayed to me that the offsetting arrangement undermines their retirement protection substantially and they therefore hope that the Government will abolish the offsetting arrangement as soon as possible. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has analysed the impacts on society and the economy to be brought about by the modifications to the offsetting arrangement under different simulated options; if it has, of the specific contents of various simulated options, the analysis method employed and the timetable for completing the analysis;
(2) in each of the past five years, of the following information concerning those employees employed by various government departments under non-civil service contracts whose accrued benefits were withdrawn for offsetting: (i) the number of employees involved, (ii) the total amount of accrued benefits withdrawn for offsetting, (iii) the total amount of accrued benefits remaining in MPF accounts after offsetting, and (iv) the total residual amounts of SP and LSP payable by the Government to the relevant employees after offsetting (set out in the table in Annex);
(3) whether it knows, in each of the past five years, the following information concerning those employees employed by outsourced service contractors for providing public services whose accrued benefits were withdrawn for offsetting (set out in a table of the same format as the table in Annex): (i) the number of employees involved, (ii) the total amount of accrued benefits withdrawn for offsetting, (iii) the total amount of accrued benefits remaining in MPF accounts after the offsetting, and (iv) the total residual amounts of SP and LSP payable by the employers to the relevant employees after offsetting; and
(4) whether it plans to give an account of the results of the public consultation on retirement protection before the date from which the current term of the Legislative Council shall stand prorogued (i.e. July 16, 2016); if it does, of the timetable; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Government's response to the Hon Tang Ka-piu's question is as follows:
(1) Two months remain before the public consultation on retirement protection ends on June 21 this year. While the "offsetting" of Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) is one of the core issues in this consultation, its deliberation at the Commission on Poverty (CoP) or at the public consultation has yet to reach the stage of formulating concrete proposals. In the remaining period of the consultation, the Government will continue to listen to the views of different individuals and organisations, including academics and think tanks, on the "offsetting" arrangement under MPF, including any concrete proposals to address the "offsetting" problem, particularly on how to rationalise the relationship between severance payment/long service payment and MPF, as well as the role of the Government in facilitating the resolution of the "offsetting" problem.
(2) The Civil Service Bureau has not collected relevant information on the amount and number of staff involved in claims made by individual bureaux/departments for offsetting severance payments and long service payments against MPF accrued benefits of Non-Civil Service Contract staff in the past.
(3) The Government is not the employer of staff hired by outsourced service contractors and does not possess the MPF information in respect of the staff concerned.
(4) On completion of the public consultation on retirement protection, the consultancy company will consolidate the views collected and conduct a comprehensive and objective analysis. It will then prepare a detailed report for submission to CoP for its discussion. The consultancy company will need some time to complete the above task.
Ends/Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Issued at HKT 11:41
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