The first Bills Committee of this year's Legislative Council held its first meeting by video on Friday (March 18) to discuss the Employment and Retirement Schemes Legislation (Offset Arrangement) 2022 (Amendment), which abolished the MPF "hedging" arrangement ) Bill.
After the Commissioner for Labour, Mrs. Sun Yuk-han, introduced the bill, some members put forward different reasons to postpone the discussion or absorb more opinions from the business community, and even criticized that the imposition of the relevant bill under the epidemic will seriously affect the labor relations and influence of Hong Kong.
On the one hand, these lawmakers said that it is difficult for employers to successfully hire employees even if they offer generous salaries. On the other hand, they claimed that employees would make “speculation” behaviors in order to obtain severance pay or long service payment. They also pointed out that the new crown epidemic has increased the number of enterprises. Operating costs and the cancellation of the MPF "hedging" arrangement would be worse for them, so it is inferred that these burdens may only be passed on to consumers in the end, resulting in hyperinflation and economic losses.
Assuming that the fight against the epidemic is unreasonable
Ironically, at the same time as the Bills Committee meeting, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the re-launch of the "employment protection" plan at a press conference on the fight against the epidemic. The rate also rebounded from 3.5% in the previous period to 4.2%, which just shows that the pressure on employed people during the epidemic is no less than that of employers, and they are no longer likely to rashly "fight for speculation" in the face of increasing unemployment risks.
In particular, among the newly unemployed, the 55-59-year-old age group has increased the most. They generally serve the same employer for a longer period of time and therefore have a higher chance of receiving severance pay or long service payment.
This situation means that there are not a few people who are affected by the old MPF "hedging" arrangement during the epidemic. Therefore, the severe epidemic situation may only mean that the cancellation of the MPF "hedging" arrangement should speed up the implementation, not the other way around. Do it the way.
In the 2018 Policy Address, the Government finalized the abolition of the MPF hedging scheme.
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It is impossible to accelerate the implementation of measures
Another focus of the meeting was the implementation time of the cancellation of the MPF "hedging" arrangement, whether it must wait until 2025 when the "E-MPF" platform is fully operational to implement the mandatory employer-specific savings account scheme.
During the meeting, some members questioned that the move was purely a move by the authorities to accommodate administrative convenience. Some members also asked whether the unforeseen delay in the "E-MPF" platform would drag down the process of canceling the "hedging" process. Officials only responded that there are internal plans. , but did not give any specific details.
However, the existence of the plan alone has proved that the government can actually cancel the "hedging" arrangement immediately after the bill is passed.
Although government representatives emphasized that cooperating with "Easy MPF" can increase work efficiency and reduce costs, the discussion on the cancellation of "hedging" has been lingering for many years, and the amount of public funds subsidizing employers for 25 years will continue to increase due to factors such as inflation during this period. , the government should seriously consider not tying it to the "Easy MPF" platform.
In any case, the commencement of the Bills Committee represents the final step in the abolition of the MPF "hedging" arrangement.
The current plan was arrived at after nearly ten years of two governments. If the current government cannot successfully enact legislation when its term of office is completed, it is difficult to guarantee that more time will be wasted in the future to deal with duplication of work.
For the sake of long-term retirement protection for citizens, even if Hong Kong is temporarily in the midst of a raging epidemic and a weak economy, we cannot easily postpone the bill or shelve it again. Instead, we must think about how to speed up its implementation.
Hong Kong needs to be more active in promoting the Secretary of Labor and Welfare to cancel the "hedging" of the MPF, we can no longer delay, withstand the fatigue, and fight the epidemic before the society can return to normal.
