380
CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
In 1962 a selection board was set up in London to enable persons of Hong Kong origin studying in the United Kingdom to apply for posts in the Hong Kong Public Service. This is regarded as a practical way of ensuring that everything possible is done to fill vacancies with men and women whose roots are in Hong Kong and who have had the benefit of overseas education or training. Encouraging results are now being achieved by the London Selec- tion Board, and free passages are provided for successful candi- dates to return to Hong Kong to take up appointment. Where overseas staff has to be recruited, Government's normal policy is to appoint them on contract terms; and pensionable terms are offered only if suitable local candidates are unlikely to become available in the foreseeable future. There is a shortage of applicants for certain grades of the Public Service, for example in the legal and medical professions, which makes it necessary to recruit over- seas officers to posts in these grades to ensure that essential public services are maintained at the necessary level.
In conjunction with heads of departments and their representa- tives, the Establishment Branch undertook detailed reviews of the staff and salary structures of several departments during the year and produced revised structures and conditions of service designed to fit the staff structure more closely to the duties to be carried out. This is a continuing task. A Report on Government Wages and Salaries was published in April, pending the introduction in 1964 of a new consumer price index. This report sought to assess the extent to which the real value of wages and salaries have changed since the 1959 revision of Government salaries, and to make comparisons with the levels of wages and salaries obtaining outside the Public Service.
Wage increases were granted to unskilled, semi-skilled and artisan grades as from 1st April 1963. These increases (which stemmed from the findings of the Report on Government Wages and Salaries) were designed to ensure that the wages of Govern- ment employees in these grades did not lag too far behind outside rates. Throughout the year the Establishment Branch consulted the three main civil service staff associations on a wide variety of subjects affecting the Public Service, and in particular on a substantial revision of Government General Orders.