UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA (STAFF TRANSFER) (AMENDMENT) RULES, 1955

The Chief Secretary (Mr W. A. C. Goode): Mr Speaker, Sir, I move,

That this Assembly, in accordance with subsection (2) of section 11 of the University of Malaya Ordinance, 1949 (No. 12 of 1949), resolves that the University of Malaya (Staff Transfer) (Amendment) Rules, 1955, made on the 24th day of March, 1955, and published as Notification No. S 106 in the Gazette Supplement No. 26 of 7th April, 1955, as contained in Sessional Paper No. S.L. 1 of 1955 be approved.

Sir, in comparison with the important public matters that we have been debating today, the subject of my motion is of somewhat minor importance, and should any Members of the House wonder why it is that they have to give their attention to it, I should perhaps explain at the start that it is because the Rule of which I am seeking approval is made under section 11 of the University of Malaya Ordinance, and subsection (2) of section 11 of that Ordinance requires that any Rule made thereunder shall be approved by the Legislature.

This matter, Sir, concerns the conditions of service of a number of members of the staff of the University of Malaya. As the House is probably aware, when the University was set up in 1949, the King Edward VII College of Medicine - then a Government department - ceased to exist and was incorporated into the University. That meant that the then Government servants who formed the staff of the College were given the option of remaining in Government service or joining the University; and it was necessary at that time to safeguard the right to pension and other superannuation benefits which those officers had. This was done by some Rules known as the University of Malaya (Staff Transfer) Rules, and they were duly passed and formally ratified. One of the provisions of those Rules was that an officer who had been pensionable in the Government service should continue to be eligible for his Government pension and for an additional pension for the period in which he was serving at the University of Malaya. The University, which does not itself pay pensions, will repay to the Government the cost of the additional pensions.

So far, so good; but a number of difficulties were then discovered. One was that those Rules provided that the pension should be calculated on the salary the officer could reasonably have been expected to draw had he remained in the Government service. That, we have agreed, was not equitable, because it meant that, in fact, an officer who joined the University and subsequently obtained promotion, and thereby got a very much higher salary, could not have his pension calculated on that higher salary.

Another difficulty was that these posts no longer exist in Government service, so it is really going to be difficult in ten or fifteen years' time to say what salary the Government would have paid to a tutor or a lecturer if the Government had then been employing tutors or lecturers, which it is not, in fact, doing.

Yet another difficulty arose out of the apportionment between the Government of Singapore and the Government of the Federation and the University of the financial liabilities.

Well, the upshot of all these difficulties, and some rather prolonged discussions, has been that we have found a solution which has been accepted by this Government, by the Government of the Federation, and by the University, and is also acceptable to the people concerned. That solution can be described quite simply: it is that we should tackle this problem in the same way as a similar problem is tackled between different governments. We have what are known as the Colonial Mixed Service Pension Rules, and they provide for exactly this sort of difficulties where an officer has service with more than one government; for example, a man may serve in the Federation, or in Singapore, and then come back to Singapore, and he has mixed service. Those rules provide a satisfactory solution. Without going into technicalities, they provide that when the officer retires, his pension is calculated on his then salary, and it is apportioned between the various authorities who have undertaken the liability. This proposal has been accepted by all parties concerned, and it has been effected, authorised, by the Rules, to which I have referred which were laid in Sessional Paper No. S.L. 1 of 1955. And I now seek this Assembly's approval of that Rule.

I should like to add one further point, Sir, and that is I am not quite clear in my own mind, Sir, as to whether it could be held that the Rule of which I am seeking approval commits the Government to additional expenditure. It will, in fact, have the effect of making some light increase in the pension bill - it is extremely difficult to estimate it, because it depends on the age to which officers live and the salaries they draw, and how long they live drawing their pensions. But, peradventure, Sir, you should have any doubt as to whether, under Standing Order No. 33 (2), this does involve a commitment, without prejudice to your ruling on that, Sir, I would like to state that I have the consent of the Governor to move this motion. I therefore move.

The Financial Secretary (Mr T. M. Hart): I second the motion.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this Assembly, in accordance with sub-section (2) of section 11 of the University of Malaya Ordinance, 1949 (No. 12 of 1949), resolves that the University of Malaya (Staff Transfer) (Amendment) Rules, 1955, made on the 24th day of March, 1955, and published as Notification No. S 106 in the Gazette Supplement No. 26 of 7th April, 1955, as contained in Sessional Paper No. S.L. 1 of 1955 be approved.