Education grant and localisation

[chrisvdb]

Hi all,

I would like your opinion on the following: I have been in HK on international assignment for the last few years and as my assignment come to an end today the company wants to localize me. I have no problem with that in itself but I do have an issue with the fact that the overall package of the local contract is less than the international assignment package. How much less is depending on how you value non-monetary benefits but definitely less overall.

I'm sure quite a few other people here went from an expat package to a local package. Were you able to negotiate compensation for losing housing, international medical, better pension, tax advice, etc in your local package?

To make things more complicated: a little over a year ago my employer agreed to provide me an 'education grant' which pays for ~25% of my emba. The grant letter states that I have to stay on for 2 years after the end of the program (program finishes end of this year) or pay back the grant on my resignation. I had no issue with this condition, but find it kinda tricky now that the new package they propose is inferior to the one this referred to.

Any thoughts?

[PDLM]

When I went local I managed to negotiate staying with the same (UK-based) defined-benefits pension plan, which was the key issue for me. I don't put much value on medical insurance (the public system here is fine for me) and tax advice (never very useful). I don't have kids so education wasn't an issue. I was on tax equalisation to the UK, so obviously going local had a significant tax benefit. The only thing I had to change was to drop from a HK$50,000/month apartment to a HK$27,000 per month one. This was actually an identical apartment 20 floors lower with a lesser view and no roof terrace. Once I'd done that my net cash in hand post accommodation & tax was pretty much unchanged.

[shri]

I had no issue with this condition, but find it kinda tricky now that the new package they propose is inferior to the one this referred to.

I am not a lawyer, but I think it can be argued that they've changed the original terms of employment under which the education grant was given, so there might be a way out.

[chrisvdb]

Thank you for the responses. I'm hopeful that we will still come to an agreement that works for both parties. In any case I'm considering taking some legal advice before signing the localization letter which basically does away with most rights I have in my home country.