CityUniversity of Hong Kong Staff Association

Minutes of 5th Executive Committee Meeting 2008-2010 Session held on 18th Sept 2009

Present: John Tse, Robin Bradbeer, WW Fung, KW Shea, LF Yeung, Eddie Yu, Jade Wong

1. Apologies for absence

Julyanna Chan, Derek Cheung, Billy Ho, Liu Chiu Kui, Rita Takehashi, Freda Yu

In Attendance:

Brian Siu, Karen Cheng, Tan Shih Ying, Make Hoi Wah, Maidie Lo, Vincent Siu, Shan Yue Yue,

2. Confirmation of minutes

Minutes of 4th Executive Committee Meeting held on 6 February 2009 were confirmed as correct.

3. Matters arising

All items are listed and dealt with under the agenda items

4. Chairperson’s report

REPORTED that Chairmanhad a meeting with C.Y Leung in May. The meeting was frank and the position of SA was understood by Leung.

5. Deputy Chair's report

NOTED that report would be dealt with under the agenda items.

Vice-Chairs' reports

i)K W Shea REPORTED that CCCU would set up a separate company running a private U using the existing TelfordBuilding expecting recruitment of students in 2010. Members of CCCU staff were busy preparing for the institutional review and programmes review.

ii)WWFung REPORTED that SCOPE had a very successful admission exercise with 40-50% increase compared to previous year. A request for the refund of salary cut and restoration of the previous pay scalesseem appropriate. SA would pursue the 3 years gradual return to the old MPS scale matching up to the University pay scale as proposed before. AGREED that WW Fung would call a meeting of the Working Group.

iii)L F Yeung REPORTEDthat there would be a Board of Trustees of the Superannuation Scheme meeting in the near future. It was AGREED that fund managers should be invited and introduced to members. There was disappointment in the performance of the Fidelityunits.

6. Appeal cases and follow up actions

There were 8 – 9 cases of appeals resulting from the re-appointment exercise earlier this year. However nothing had finalised after 6 months time.Aworking group from staff members concerned, with Hans Mahncke as the Chairman and Jade Wong as the Vice Chair will be established to advise SA EC on unsettled appeal cases.

7. Staff Common Room and Book Sale

SA would launch another book sale in early November. The money would go to refurbishing of the staff common room, as well as towards the SA legal fund. Books that were not sold would be given to the Salvation Army.

8. Slashing of Self-finance programmes and problem of space shortage

It was REPORTED that the Universityhas ran out of space due to larger size of enrolment and full time students are being asked to attend 3 – 5 evening classes per week or even Saturday afternoon classes. The University should solve the issue on lack of space rather than cutting self-finance programmes. There was no policy on self financing Master program and it was AGREED to arrange a meeting with the President to talk about space issue.

9. Policy on Job rotation

Job rotation enhances job enrichment, thus leading to good motivation. It should make available to Administration staff, executive officer and clerical staff. It was AGREED that staff views on this issue and its implementation should be collected for further consideration.

  1. New Package and PBPR scheme

The recent open forum and letter from the management regarding the new package and PBPR scheme were met with virtually total rejection, and were against the views of members of staff. It was SUGGESTED that SA would conduct another survey with the aim to collect feedback on this scheme. It was AGREED that the annual evaluation of the President be postponed till later in the semester.

11.Items raised by staff – SCOPE/ARRO

There were concerns on the health of members of staff due to overwork, low pay and extreme pressure from office. It was AGREED that the working group under Han Mahncke and Jade Wong would look into such concerns.

12.Early retirement plan

It was AGREED that a new early retirement plan be established. To be discussed with university management.

  1. Search Committee for Provost

It was NOTED with regret that the first meeting was conducted without the presence of the elected member. It was REPORTED that the search exercise would be a transparent exercise, and that general applications and nominations would be completed by the end of October. The qualification requirements of the Provost will be circulated to all staff members for their participation, then prioritised and agreed upon by the committee later on. There would not be age discrimination for the Provost position. HRO would send EBS to solicit referrals. It was expected that there would be keen competition as there were more positions opening in other Universities in Hong Kong.

  1. Any Other Business

It is NOTED that:

  1. both the food quality and service quality from the catering had gone down in the student canteen. It was SUGGESTED to give the caterer more time to improve and complaint should be specific for proper action. i.e. the beef brisket and red sausage from the noodle counter tasted plastic. As the customers were mostly students, it would be proper for the students to conduct a survey on the caterer.
  2. Council has accepted a new vision statement and yet the old vision statement was still intact on the university web site. WW Fung would follow up on this.
  3. there would be snake dinner on the 25th Dec 2009, costing HK$135 per person. SA will subsidize HK$35 and charging members HK$100 per person.
  4. Book discount on children books would be placed to SA web for public view.
  5. There was no elected member in the task force on review on personnel procedure and the chair was a new member of staff. SA EC REGRETTEDsuch an arrangement and condemned such practice.