མ་ལས
3
Civil Service rates of pay. Its general terms of reference and methods of operation have been agreed by the Senior Civil Service Council and since its inception the line has been taken and held that, as its methods have been designed for exactness and fairness in making job and total remuneration comparisons with the private sector, only PIU data shall be used in assessing Civil Service pay.
10.
The Trends Report of the Hong Kong Productivity Centre to which you have drawn attention is designed for a limited purpose. It neither compares job with job nor gives consideration to all the factors which make up total remuneration, such as leave earnings, pensions factors and medical benefits. It is, therefore, unsuitable for establishing appropriate Civil Service rates of pay.
11.
I note incidentally that in your use of the HKPC Trends Report you have selected only two sectors, Commerce and Utility, and that had you averaged the sums for all four sectors including Manufacturing and Service the figure at the maximum would have been less than that introduced by Government for Stenographers.
12.
The minor transcription errors and the minor differences in the companies surveyed in 1976 as against those surveyed in 1973 which the PIU report on Secretarial Grades contains do not affect the major findings of the survey nor the pay scales for the Secretarial Class which Government subsequently introduced.
13.
In devising scales, Government rounds the medians of private sector pay up or down to the nearest Master Pay Scale point.
14.
The 17 companies surveyed in 1976 are regarded as a sufficiently large sample for comparison purposes. The companies surveyed contained 315 analogues for Stenographers/ SATS; this figure is not unduly out of line with the SAT strength in Government at that time, which was 500.
15.
Pay at the minimum for grades filled by school leavers such as that of Stenographer is set by reference to Government's formula for academic qualifications and technical skills. Although the minimum point has by reference to this formula been lowered by one increment, a well qualified entrant may enter as high as Point 8, $1140 per month. The adjustments to entry qualifications are intended to protect the standards of the grade but they have not been permitted to affect adversely any serving officer, each of whom has had her rights under her earlier conditions of service fully protected.
16/...