Pay trend numbers looking really good for civil servants

Michael Shum

The government put a dampener on hopes civil servants may get a pay rise of nearly 5.5 percent this year, saying it has to strike a balance on factors impacting increases.

The latest pay trend survey indicated a 5.47 percent wage hike for junior civil servants, and 4.32 percent and 4.01 percent for middle and senior civil servants, respectively.

Pay Trend Survey Committee chairman Laurence Li Lu-jen said yesterday the data was gathered from more than 110 private firms with over 134,000 employees.

"The numbers are not themselves recommendations in any way for an increase, decrease, or anything. They are factors to be considered among other factors. I think it's premature to try to forecast how these things will all be put into the pot," Li said.

Permanent secretary for the civil service Clement Leung Cheuk-man said the survey is only a piece in a jigsaw puzzle, and that it has to strike a balance among six factors before a final decision on this year's pay rise.

The six factors are the status of the city's economy, changes in cost of living, government's fiscal position, net pay trend indicators, pay claims from civil servants, and civil service morale.

"Each year, the economic situation and the government's fiscal position are different," Leung said. "Every time we need to have two-way communication with our staff-side representatives."

Federation of Civil Service Union chairman Leung Chau-ting said the government should adopt the figures from the survey as the rates are already "unsatisfactory," so any figures below will have a negative impact on morale.

"The government should not sacrifice civil servants' benefits amid the fiscal deficit, and if it decides to adopt rises less than that, there will be a domino effect in the private market," Leung said.

Chinese Civil Servants' Association secretary general Tsoi Koon-lung said he hopes the government can maintain civil servants' purchasing power and share "the fruit of HK's economic development."

Hong Kong Civil Servants General Union chairman Fung Chuen-chung said the survey report has been working and should be respected. "The mechanism reflects the change in market salary in the past year. I believe Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and the Executive Council can make a decision that is consistent with the community's interests," Fung said.

Human resources expert Alexa Chow Yee-ping said: "An over 5 percent rise for junior civil servants is a detachment from reality. It is hardly possible for the government to directly adopt those figures."

michael.shum@singtaonewscorp.com