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Of the 440 Stenographers (or, Shorthand Audio Typists; those who have not yet accepted Government's restructuring package prefer to call themselves by the old title), 240 have not yet accepted Government's package which in terms of pay gives them an increase of two increments at the maximum i.e. from $1630 to $1865 p.m., or, approximately £2425 to £2750 p.a. As 90 Stenographers have not yet reached their maximum they are in no immediate hurry to accept unless Government introduces a deadline date.
The staff association representing the Shorthand Audio Typists was constituted as a Unit of the parent HK Chinese Civil Servants Association in mid 1976. Agreement on Government's package was reached with the first Unit Committee a short while later but a campaign by militants led to the Committee's being ousted and replaced by a more aggressive body. The new Committee have become progressively more unwilling to listen to the advice of the Chinese Civil Servants Association and about three months ago they formed an SAT Association independent of the HKCCSA. They decided in late July to petition H.M. the Queen and it is believed they will send a small delegation to London in late October to try to obtain press and T.V. publicity and win sympathy from trades unionists and M.P.s for their claims for a scale of $1220 - $2365 p.m. or approximately 1800
£3500 p.a.
W
Briefly, the new Association's main claims,
and Government's answers, are,
(a)
The Secretarial Class as a whole were excluded from Government's Equal Pay for Women Scheme because their grades had no male members and thus, no male pay scales which generally were 25% higher than those of females doing similar work.
Answer: They were excluded because they
were regarded as already receiving
'pay for the job', not pay for the job, less 25%' The Salaries Commission of 1971 gave special consideration to this matter and in their recommended Class Scales for the Secretarial Class they said they had had in mind the effects of the equal pay scheme on Secretarial grades.
(b)