COURT INTERPRETERS' ASSOCIATION,
LG3, SUPREME COURT BUILDING, QUEENSWAY,
HONG KONG
法庭傳譯主任協會
香港金鐘道最高法院大廈低層三樓
TEL: 5-8214364
Patron:
Mr. David Mudd, M. P.
Miss Maria W.C. Tam, Barrister
Mr. A.M. Niamatullah, Barrister
Miss Audrey Eu
Mr. Francis K.W. Cheung, Solicitor
Legal Adviser:
Mr. Michael Cheuk
Date: 31st December, 1988.
Sir David Ford, K.B.E., L.V.0., J.P.
The Honourable the Chief Secretary
Hong Kong
Dear Sir,
PETITION
In the Matter of the Representation of Members of the Court Interpreters'
Association for the Restructuring of the Court Interpreter Grade
We, Court Interpreters serving faithfully at various levels of the courts of
Hong Kong, have long expressed our dissatisfaction over our poor career prospects
and have on repeated occasions made pleas to the authorities for improvement.
Despite the efforts that we made in this regard, we have grounded to a bleak
stalemate.
We learned from the speech of Miss Y.H. Lee, a Chief Chinese Language
Officer who was invited as a guest speaker at a recent seminar that there are at
the moment 17 Chief Chinese Language Officers and 106 Senior Chinese Language
Officers in their establishment of 493 officers. In the Judiciary, we have only
one Chief Court Interpreter and 6 Senior Court Interpreter posts in our
establishment of 156 which is about one-third that of the Chinese Language
Officers. This means that the prospect of advancement for the Chinese Language
Officers to the chief rank is 1 to 29, whereas that of the Court Interpreters is
1 to 156 and the chance of promotion for the Chinese Language Officers to the
senior rank is 1 to 4.6, whereas the Court Interpreters is 1 to 26, not to
mention the rank of controllers which does not exist in our grade.