editorial
Written by: Hong Kong 01
2021-04-12 08:00
Last update date: 2021-04-12 08:00
Following the approval by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress at the end of last month to amend Annex 1 and Annex 2 of the Basic Law, the general election of the Legislative Council has also been decided to be held in December this year, and the term of office of the current Legislative Council will be extended to the end of this year. Amend election laws and other bills related to the economy and people's livelihood.
At the Chief Executive's Question and Answer Meeting last Thursday (April 8), Carrie Lam opened her speech and stated that after obtaining the approval of the Executive Council, the Legislative Council can hold a special meeting to propose the "Improvement of the Electoral System (Comprehensive Amendment) Ordinance 2021" However, at the same time, there was news that the authorities planned to postpone the cancellation of the "hedging" arrangement of the MPF scheme. It is said that the reason given by the officials was that the Department of Justice needed to deploy staff to handle the electoral amendments. Able to draft relevant drafts within the term of this term of the Legislative Council.
The provisions that allow employers to misappropriate employees’ rights to "hedge" severance payments or long service payments can be traced back to the British Hong Kong period. In 1974, the mechanism of offsetting severance payments with remuneration or provident funds was first added, and in 1985 it was further expanded to cover long-term offsets. Service payment; and after the reunification, the mandatory provident fund scheme implemented since 2000 has continued to use these arrangements.
According to public information from the MPF Authority, more than 50 billion yuan of the plan has been withdrawn by employers to offset severance payments or long service payments, especially in 2020, which was plagued by the new crown pneumonia epidemic. Dismissal of employees has become more common, making the relevant amount in the first three quarters of last year as high as 4.58 billion yuan, close to the total of 4.68 billion yuan in 2019, which shows that the scale of MPF "hedging" is gradually expanding.
In fact, the abolition of the MPF "hedging" work has already begun as early as the previous government. The former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying proposed in his election platform to "gradually reduce the employer's accumulated contribution rights in the MPF account to offset employees." The ratio of long service payment and severance payment.” In 2015, Carrie Lam, who was then Chief Secretary for Administration, led the Poverty Alleviation Committee to launch a public consultation on the topic of "Building a Road to Retirement Protection". The final report was published the following year, citing The opinion emphasized that “the government needs to intervene and coordinate and invest in the establishment of a fund for subsidy, but at the same time, it is also possible to keep the employer part able to bear part of the responsibility, so that the cost of dismissal of employees will be incurred in order to fulfill the function of occupational insurance.” The direction of the Hong Kong government's work on this work, and the preliminary proposal appeared in Leung Chun-ying's last policy address in January 2017.
The performance of the current government in abolishing the MPF is undoubtedly pouring cold water on Hong Kong people who are looking forward to results one after another.
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Repeated delays in cashing out and canceling the hedge indefinitely
Like Leung Chun-ying, Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s campaign platform also stated that "on the implementation of the cancellation of the MPF "hedging" arrangement, we should listen to the voices of the labor and business sectors, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, and strive to seek consensus." Liang Zhenying's dissatisfaction with the plan.
In her first Policy Address in 2017, she said with a higher profile, “Implementing the abolition of the “hedging” arrangement of mandatory provident fund, severance payment and long service payment is one of the first things that the current government will deal with after taking office... Basically, a broad consensus has been reached on whether the "hedging" should be abolished. The current government's position on the abolition of the "hedging" arrangement is clear, and it is also willing to increase financial commitment to reduce the impact of the cancellation of the "hedging" arrangement on enterprises, especially small, medium and micro enterprises. The enthusiasm of the influence of enterprises" once gave the general public a kind of hope.
Ironically, the follow-up performance of the current government has poured cold water on Hong Kong people who are looking forward to results one after another.
At the meeting of the Legislative Council Manpower Committee in May 2018, the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Law Chi-kwong, stated that the government hopes to submit a draft legislation for empowerment by the end of 2019. However, on December 29, 2019, what he did was actually publish A blog post wrote: "The drafting of the law is already in progress, and the goal is to submit it to the Legislative Council by the end of 2020." Then in December 2020, the bureau's document submitted to the Legislative Council was changed to say "It is now fully implemented. Related work to complete the drafting of the law as soon as possible.” In March this year, the Commissioner of Labor, Sun Yukhan, when interviewed by the media, claimed that the government’s internal goal was to submit the bill by the end of 2021.
After repeated delays, the people of the Hong Kong government have no intention to load the cancellation of the "hedging" of the MPF.
The recent election amendments carried out by the SAR government with much fanfare can be described as vigorous and resolute. It is in sharp contrast to the slow progress in the cancellation of the MPF "hedging" work.
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Be loyal to the superior and slower than solving problems for the people
On the other hand, the recent election amendments carried out by the SAR government with much fanfare can be described as vigorous and resolute. This is in sharp contrast to the slow progress in the abolition of the MPF "hedging" work.
The National People’s Congress passed the "Decision on Improving the Election System of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision") one month ago on March 11, and the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the "Decision on the Method for the Selection of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council" The amendment to the Annex to the Basic Law was only two weeks ago.
Although the government may know the direction of the relevant changes in advance and be able to prepare for the amendments in advance, in Carrie Lam’s own words: "The amendments to local election laws are quite complicated because there are more than 20 main laws and subsidiary laws involved. A lot of work needs to be done.” Therefore, it is not easy to complete the drafting of the law in such a short time.
The laws regarding the "hedging" arrangements of MPF schemes mainly include Article 31I, Article 31A, Article 31Y, Article 31YA of the Employment Ordinance and Article 12A of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance.
There are only about 3,600 Chinese characters and more than 2,100 English words for the above clauses. Moreover, several clauses of the Employment Ordinance are written in similar or the same way. The overall length is far less than that of the revised election amendment. The Chief Executive Election Ordinance, the Legislative Council Ordinance, the Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance, the District Councils Ordinance, the Election (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance are five main laws and related subsidiary laws.
Since the staff of the Department of Justice can handle the electoral amendments in just a few weeks, why have they been unable to complete the bill to abolish the MPF "hedging" in the past few years?
The reason why there is such a gap in the execution speed of the two, in the final analysis, I am afraid that the election amendment involves political loyalty.
In order to avoid being labeled as "non-patriots," government officials and civil servants have naturally devoted themselves to the tasks given by the central government, sparing no effort, and doing this with the highest efficiency.
Probably for those who are accustomed to catering to their wishes, the priority of solving problems for the local people is not as important as the reform of the electoral system, which is "conducive to safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development interests" as stated in the "Decision". There has been a situation in which the manpower resources originally responsible for the cancellation of the "hedging" of the MPF have been drawn to take the lead in completing the relevant work. As everyone knows, this approach may deviate from the Central Government's expectations for Hong Kong governors.
According to the Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report 2019, the number of poor people in Hong Kong has reached 1.49 million.
Carrie Lam failed to defend the government's handling of "deep-level problems" at the question-and-answer session last week, saying that it was "because of fear of this Legislative Council", but are there still people blocking the government from improving people's livelihood?
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The Hong Kong government should not delay solving deep-seated problems
As Wang Chen, the vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, said in his explanation on the draft of the “Decision”, the necessity of improving Hong Kong’s electoral system this time lies in “ensure that the “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” with patriots as the main body will ensure that Hong Kong The special administrative region governs in accordance with the law and effectively governs", and to achieve "patriots ruling Hong Kong" is ultimately to enable local "deep-level problems" to be effectively resolved and Hong Kong to achieve "long-term stability and stability", so as to be able to contribute to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
If the SAR government only knows the content of the restructuring proposed in the "Decision" and does not know that solving the "deep-level contradictions" of inequality between the rich and the poor in the economy is equally or even more important, it is undoubtedly a matter of inverting the importance and ruining the last. Where is the "deep-level problem"?
Especially with regard to social security matters such as the MPF scheme, President Xi Jinping also stated at a collective study meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee in February this year that he must "protect every cent of the people's "old age pension", " "Life Saving Money"", and the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan and 2035 Long-Term Goals Outline" approved by the National People's Congress later proposed to increase the intensity and accuracy of taxation, social security, transfer payments and other adjustments. Enhance the fair accessibility of social security benefits and services" to achieve "improvement of the redistribution mechanism", and to achieve "improvement of the policy system that promotes the domestic cycle" to "improve the income distribution in line with the level of economic development," "Social security and public service systems", these words and deeds can be said to be a blow to the Hong Kong government, which underestimated the cancellation of the "hedging" arrangement.
Carrie Lam failed to defend the government’s handling of "deep-level issues" at the question and answer session last week, saying that "it was because of the fear of this legislative council." She and her colleagues "when formulating policies, making decisions and judgments, There is already a shadow behind...the Legislative Council will be distorted, discredited, and even personally attacked and fights." This will "discount" its enthusiasm for governance. In addition, she also pointed out that the non-establishment faction destroyed the popular opinion. The platform has enabled the public to participate in activities in recent years "nothing can be achieved."
However, the abolition of the MPF "hedging" issue is clearly an issue on which a small number of established and non-incorporated parties have reached a consensus. On the surface, Carrie Lam himself has shown enthusiasm for this. However, this time the results prove that even if no one obstructs the council, Nor does it help speed up the resolution of the problem. The main reason is that government officials always have many excuses to evade the delay.
Please pay attention to the 260th "Hong Kong 01" weekly report published on April 12, 2021, which is available at major newsstands, OK convenience stores and Vango convenience stores.
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