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Civil servants' salary increase tests the wisdom of officials

2022-05-26T10:36:42.675Z


The results of the net indicators of civil service pay trends obtained by the Pay Trend Survey Committee (PTI) are higher than the community's expectations. Should the Government fully adopt it as a social focus? The committee unanimously confirmed the investigation on Wednesday (25th)


The results of the net indicators of civil service pay trends obtained by the Pay Trend Survey Committee (PTI) are higher than the community's expectations. Should the Government fully adopt it as a social focus?

The committee unanimously confirmed the survey results on Wednesday (25th) that several civil servants unions asked the Chief Executive in Council to accept all the documents. Namely, the net indicator of pay trends, Hong Kong's economic conditions, changes in cost of living, government finances, job-side requirements and civil service morale.


The survey commissioned by the committee found that the average salaries paid to employees by the interviewed companies from April last year to April this year were higher than that of the previous cycle, and the salary of senior, middle and junior civil servants increased by 7.26%, 4.55% and 2.04% respectively after deducting the salary increase points. .

There is a big discrepancy between the figures and the actual situation, because the survey did not take into account the special phenomena such as layoffs and unpaid leave during the epidemic. The chairman of the committee, Li Luanhui, responded that the survey only invited sound and stable companies. Paid leave is a new thing, so it has not been calculated, and the salary data obtained is not the employee's take-home income, but the calculation of unpaid leave will definitely be considered in the future.

The Civil Service General Union is urging pay rises based on pay trend survey results.

(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)

Salary trends should adjust survey methods early

Unpaid leave is not a new thing, and this factor has been discussed in the past salary trend committees. The Standing Committee on Civil Service Salaries and Conditions of Service, which participated in the work of the salary trend committee, has expressly recommended future investigations in its 2009 work report. The method "should not take into account unpaid leave".

At that time, it was the year following the financial tsunami, and the workplace was also sluggish. Employees were also put on unpaid leave, but the scale was not as common as the new crown epidemic. In addition, the financial tsunami was relatively short and the economy recovered rapidly. attention has also decreased.

If members of the Salary Trend Committee had a good review of their past work, they might be able to remind them to add this factor to make the survey more realistic.

In addition to this, the focus of recent discussions has been on whether public perceptions should be taken into account when arguing over salary increases.

Chen Zhisi, the convener of the Executive Council, said that the salary increases for high-level and low-level personnel in the business sector vary, and the government also needs to balance itself, and of course, social perceptions must also be considered.

Many commentators also believe that civil servants are not worthy of a substantial salary increase due to their ineffectiveness in fighting the epidemic.

The representative of the civil servants union retorted that "public perception" is very subjective and is not one of the six factors when considering public servants' salaries.

Civil servants have had their salaries frozen for the past two years.

(file picture)

Subjectivity is not a consideration

It is true that public perceptions are not listed in black and white as the factors for consideration in salary increases, but if we say that we should not resort to subjective factors, isn't the morale of civil servants a subjective factor?

Civil servants are not only a job, but also involve the use of public funds and are related to the government's public finances.

As taxpayers, it is not unreasonable to include the general opinion of the public as one of the factors to be considered.

Civil service organizations need to be open-minded and open-minded, and even accept the reform assessment and salary adjustment mechanism.

As for the proposal of some representatives to adjust wages only according to inflation, this is particularly inadvisable. On the one hand, it will perpetuate the pay gap between high-, middle- and low-level employees, and on the other hand, it will make the salary adjustment system rigid and ignore other factors.

The Salary Trend Survey collects salary data of employees in the business sector. However, the policies for setting salary in the private sector are subject to change. The Salary Trend Council should pay attention to calculating whether the situation in the industry has changed during the economic downturn.

At present, although the Chief Executive in Council has a mechanism to decide the salary adjustment rate of civil servants, the final judgment they make is still in their hands. This obviously tests political wisdom and whether it can demonstrate fairness, justice and rationality.

In the future, the authorities can actively lead the reform of the investigation mechanism and try to improve the overall quality of governance through the reform of the salary and allowance system.

Get rid of the "iron rice bowl" mentality of civil servants and start with effective assessment of directorate levels. How easy is it to make a fair distribution of salary trends?

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2022-05-26

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