Sir,
Speech by the Hon. Martin Rowlands
Secretary for the Civil Service
in Legislative Council on 15 November 1979
на
I am grateful to Miss Dunn and Mr. Wong Lam for their
remarks on the Civil Service. I trust that my speech this afternoon
will show that I agree entirely with what they had to say earlier in
this debate.
2.
Today the question uppermost in the minds of most civil
servants is, without doubt, the First Report on Civil Service Pay,
which was published last month by the Standing Commission on Civil
Service Salaries and Conditions of Service.
3.
Staff Association disagreement with the Report has received
wide publicity, while a number of groups such as Nurses, Health
Inspectors and Dispensers have taken or threatened disruptive action.
All this has given rise to considerable, though often unvoiced, public
concern. I believe therefore that it would be helpful if I made a
statement this afternoon setting out the Government's position.
4.
First, however, I should like to spell out the essential
background to the Standing Commission's recommendations, so that both
civil servants and the general public may better understand the issues
at stake; for these issues are important not just for the civil
servants involved, but also for the future stability of our community.
5.
The Hong Kong Civil Service is an extremely large and
complex organisation. Its 130,000 staff are organised into 630 grades
in 48 separate departments.
They perform a far greater variety of
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