Lawmaker Sulu Sou, who is backed by the New Macau Association, is urging the government to close a loophole that allows private schools to use money from teachers’ pension funds as severance pay when they dismiss teachers without cause.
Some schools have been calculating the money they have invested in their employees’ provident funds against the amount of dismissal compensation that is paid when a teacher’s contract ends, or when the teacher retires or is dismissed.
In March, the Court of Second Instance issued a judgment on the problem. The court ruled that private schools should not use employees’ provident funds as severance pay.
The court added that the purpose of provident funds was to safeguard teachers’ retirements, rather than to ensure that schools can pay the compensation owed during the termination of contracts.
Sou said he approved of the Court’s ruling, explaining that the mandatory requirements for provident funds that were institutionalized by the Legal Framework Governing Private Foundational Education Institutions (Legal Framework) were based on an identical justification.
Furthermore, the requirements for mandatory provident funds and labor protections fall under two different laws, with the latter falling under the Labour Relations Law.
“The authorities should rectify the problem as soon as possible,” the lawmaker urged.
Some teachers have already filed complaints about this practice with the Labour Affairs Bureau, which has been inconsistent in its handling of these complaints. Sou suspects this might be due to their lack of understanding of the Legal Framework.
In addition, the lawmaker has also encouraged teachers who have been victims of this loophole to register with the Labour Affairs Bureau so that action can be taken.
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