Hong Kong government: 180,000 civil servants will be sacked if they do not sign a pledge of allegiance

About 180000 civil servants in Hong Kong at the end of this month or early next month will receive swore to uphold the basic law and the detail arrangement of allegiance to the Hong Kong special administrative region, public servants must be signed in one month statement, if refusing to sign a statement or pledge, will not only promoted the influence of as said earlier, but need to leave the civil servants, and not as a departure, influence the pension arrangements. The latest announcement by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Nie Dequan, has caused a stir among civil servants’ groups. Some of them have said they will consider resigning themselves, but the union does not expect a wave of resignations.

Civil servants are usually confirmed by signing a declaration, and the most senior permanent secretaries and heads of departments in the civil service will take the oath, the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Nie Tak Kuen, said after a television programme today (13 June).

He told radio explain aggravating consequences visa statement yesterday, with the justice department study, think that uphold the basic law and allegiance to the Hong Kong special administrative region and shall be responsible for the SAR government is the basic responsibility of public servants and conditions, sworn and signed statement is confirmed and commitment, if a male is 6 member refused to public commitment and confirm the basic responsibility, pipe will make a serious questions about whether to accept such basic responsibility, therefore not suitable for in civil servants, will be considered according to the civil servants (management) command system, the civil servant troops leave requirements concerned. He added today that civil servants would be given an opportunity to explain during the process. If they did not believe their explanation, they would be punished according to the existing mechanism, including dismissal; The person concerned will not be promoted or transferred until the relevant procedures have been completed.

For he said, referring to violate the oath might involve breaking the port security law’s comments, and concerns caused by the civil service groups were to say into sin, NieDeQuan explain again today and was referred for violation of the oath may be involved in illegal or in violation of the provisions of civil servants, according to the situation of the authorities to deal with, such as breaking the national security law and be returned a verdict of guilty, and shall terminate, trial violations according to discipline the processing mechanism, if confirmed in violation of the ethics of civil servants, press action from the severity of punishment.

But how to define the violation of oath is easy to make civil servants into the French open, NieDeQuan show that pledge content is to uphold the basic law and allegiance to the SAR, such as loyalty and against SAR interests or sabotage, this involves the national security level, but he stressed that civil servants have any questions on the policies or measures, no problem, but in view of the government, or against, hostility, or not to accept the government, is another matter, “should be easy to distinguish.

However, Leung Chiu-ting, director-general of the Civil Servants’ Union Federation, said nie’s statement was too abstract, could easily be criminalized and would create a culture of “ash and ash”. He hoped the Government would provide clear guidance on what constitutes a violation. He added that the Government had suddenly asked civil servants who had joined the civil service to sign a declaration and oath to unilaterally change their employment contract. He urged the Government to allow civil servants who did not want to sign to apply for early retirement to avoid damaging their retirement benefits. According to a briefing given to them, there are two types of punishment in an executive order, including an order to retire early, with benefits still available, or dismissal, with benefits lost.