2
4.
II The Principle of Fair Comparison
The principle of fair comparison, first formulated
by the 1965 Salaries Commission, is the major principle governing civil service pay. This principle aims at achieving fair pay for civil servants by paying them at rates broadly comparable to those paid by the private sector for similar work after making due allowance for the differences in private sector and civil service pay methods, fringe benefits, prospects for advancement and conditions of service generally. Relativities within the civil service are a secondary consideration and are taken into account if, and only if, job comparison with the private sector is impossible.
5.
One of the Commission's first considerations must be whether or not comparability with the private sector should continue to be the first principle governing civil service pay. The principle of fair comparison has considerable advantages in that :-
6.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
it permits civil service pay to be regulated in line with rates paid by other employers competing in the same labour market, thus taking account of the economic well-being of Hong Kong as a whole;
it enables civil servants to enjoy the benefits of any real increase in the wealth of the community;
it provides a means of determining civil service salaries which is likely to be seen as fair by the general public; an essential requirement if the aims of the Hong Kong government's policy "to maintain a civil service which is recognised as efficient and staffed by members whose conditions of service are regarded as fair both by themselves and by the public which they serve"* are to be met;
it allows flexibility in adjusting civil service pay (whether up or down) in line with market demands.
The problems with the principle of fair comparison arise largely from the lack of effective machinery for its implementation. The method adopted by the 1971 Salaries Commission, which was to divide the civil service into occupational classes in the belief that within each class a range of comparable work would exist in the private sector, has proved unsatisfactory, mainly because :-
/(a) for
* Statement of Principles and Aims of Civil Service
Remuneration
1968
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