On Oct 13, the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA), a group of employers, professionals and legislators, issued a statement strongly opposing the government's plan to scrap a section of the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) Schemes Ordinance. Scrapping the mechanism, if it goes through, would benefit workers as a whole.

Businessmen and women and professionals in Hong Kong please have a big heart.

Under the so-called offset mechanism, employers can currently take money out of workers' MPF accounts to fund workers' long-service payments or severance payments. In his 2012 government report, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying pledged to scrap this "offsetting" section to protect workers' money in their retirement accounts. Carrying out this promise would certainly be an honorable thing to do.

But a BPA spokesman threatened that if Leung goes ahead with this the business group might not support Leung for re-election in 2017. We all need to realize, however, that mixing business with politics is very foolish. Leung would be well-advised to remember this too.

The MPF Ordinance requires employers to pay a sum equivalent to 5 percent of an employee's earnings into his retirement account. The employee can withdraw the savings in his MPF account when he reaches 65. If he is laid off by his employer, in theory he would get a redundancy payment from his employer. However, the money, under the present regime, comes from his MPF account. That means he is paying himself with his retirement money and his employer is off the hook. What kind of logic this is?

That does not sound fair, does it? When an employer makes a worker redundant, he should pay this worker from his own pocket and not from the worker's. People might say that scrapping the "offsetting arrangements" will increase the business costs of a company. This might sound like a valid argument. However, people should not forget that the employer can save money after the worker is laid off due to a reduction in staff and therefore a reduction in subsequent wage payments.

Employees work very hard in Hong Kong. This is the Hong Kong spirit we are all proud of. The average daily working hours are 10, not the legal working hours of eight or the standard eight hours or less elsewhere in the world. The hard-working attitude helps Hong Kong maintain its competitiveness, hence helping citizens put food on the table. We should be more sympathetic with our industrious employees; and employers should agree not to take their money from their retirement savings accounts to make redundancy payments or other payments.

What is more worrying is that the BPA spokesman said other major business groups in Hong Kong have agreed to join its campaign against the government's plan to scrap the offset mechanism. These include the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong, among others. Business group leaders are reminded not to forget what great contributions workers have made when they present fat profit figures to company shareholders.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and other employee groups are exhorted to stand up against those employers who plan to continue robbing employees of their long-service or severance payments; they should be united and fight for what is rightfully theirs. Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. The CE also should be fearless in amending the legislation. This is to make Hong Kong a more equitable society and not merely a pro-business one.

So employers, please have a big heart.

(HK Edition 10/15/2015 page8)