There are two alternative methods of announcing the
pay revisions resulting from the recommendations of the Standing Commission on Civil Service Salaries and Conditions of Service, the Standing Committee on Directorate Salaries and Conditions of Service, and the PIU's Pay Trend Survey Report
(a)
(b)
-
after this meeting of the Council to make a first announcement covering the structural revisions, namely the extension to the upper ends of the Civil Service pay scales, the pay of staff of the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Seventh Report's recommendations on Directorate pay and structure. The service-wide adjustment can then be announced subsequently, following approval of funds by Finance Committee;
to announce-both the structural revisions and
the service-wide pay adjustment simultaneously, as soon as funds for the latter have been approved by Finance Committee.
30
The major advantage of a two stage announcement is that it emphasises the underlying logic of all the changes proposed, although providing two opportunities for public comment. Separate announcement of the structural revisions and the service-wide pay adjustment might reduce the psychological impact of the total cost and avoid highlighting the contrast between the total increases being received by staff at the upper end of the Civil Service pay scales and the Directorate. It also provides a better opportunity for correcting misunderstanding about the basis for the various changes. The advice of the Secretary for Information is that he would support two separate announcements. More- over, the Secretary for the Civil Service now advises that a single announce- ment would be interpreted by the Staff Side as an attempt at obfuscation.
Timetable
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A meeting of the Senior Civil Service Council has been provisionally arranged for 10th July 1980. Assuming approval of the Administration's recommended option by Members and acceptance of it by the Staff Side, it is proposed that the agreement should, on this occasion, be put directly to Finance Committee on 23rd July with out further reference to this Council,
C.S. 166
CONFIDENTIAL ##
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