17.
debate over employment issues, pay and promotion.
The resulting
Impasse is intensified by allegations from the staff side that their
representatives have on occasion been "intimidated" by the official
side.
Having discussed the Councils, it may now be useful to consider the role
of the organisations which constitute the second half of the staff
relations machinery. Firstly, there is the CSB which represents the
'official side' and implements government staff relations policy.
Secondly, on the staff side, there are the unions recognised for purposes
of-staff-representation on the SCSC. Thirdly, there is the plethora of
employee organisations which, although registered as trade unions under
law, in fact possess no authentic recognition at bargaining agents in
the Hong Kong Civil Service.
The Civil Service Branch
As mentioned earlier, the CSB is the Hong Kong Government's personnel
department. At the head is the Civil Service Secretary, a new post
created in 1973, who possesses overall responsibility for recruitment,
staffing and staff relations. Of the units and departments under his
control, of particular relevance to staff relations are the Pay Invest-
igation Unit and the Pay Structure Department.
The former carries out the regular reviews of private sector wage
movements and earnings. As its title suggests, the Pay Structure
Department is concerned with the constant rationalisation of the pay
structure. In August 1977, the department's logbook contained 112 cases
for grade revision. Of these cases, the vast majority were concerned
with either the gradual integration of Model Scale 1 employees into