The Housing Authority (HA) has approved a voluntary exit scheme (VES) for about 650 surplus staff arising from divestment of its retail and car parking facilities.

A spokesman for the HA stressed that there would not be any forced redundancy of surplus staff and it would be up to individual staff to decide whether to join the VES.

"The Housing Department will exhaust every possible opportunity to gainfully re-deploy those who choose to remain in the civil service on other duties," the spokesman added.

The spokesman noted that benefits and eligibility rules under the VES were the same as those offered under the Second Voluntary Retirement Scheme for selected civil services grades last year.

He added that staff had been consulted on the exit scheme, but it was inappropriate to offer any additional benefits given the Government's stringent financial situation or relax the eligibility rule given the possibly limited impact on the number of applicants.

The benefit package includes a lump-sum ex-gratia payment plus immediate payment of pension benefits. Officers with more than five years' active service prior to normal retirement will be eligible for the scheme.

The surplus civil service posts are mainly responsible for managing or maintaining HA's retail properties of about one million square metres and 100 000 car parking spaces covered by the divestment plans.

"The Government will bear the cost of the commuted pension and monthly pension of the staff concerned while the HA will be responsible for the ex-gratia lump sum payment," the spokesman said.


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