44
CHAPTER XI
CONVERSION TO NEW RATES OF PAY
DATE FROM WHICH THE RECOMMENDATIONS SHOULD TAKE EFFECT
193. After considering the hardships that officers have suffered since the resumption of civil government and the evidence that some have had to use up savings and others have incurred debts, we believe that there is a strong case for the retrospective application of these recommendations. In view in particular of the heavy cost of our recommendations we are forced to conclude that the revised scales ought not to be introduced with retrospective effect from a date earlier than 1st January, 1947.
PERSONS TO WHOM RETROSPECTIVE BENEFITS SHOULD BE GRANTED
194. We recommend that retrospective benefits should only be granted to officers who are in the service of the Hong Kong Government at the date on which the final approval of our recommendations is announced. We would exclude from this recommendation those Police officers who were offered and accepted the opportunity of retirement before they had reached the age of 45. In addition, we consider that officers who have resigned or have been discharged from the service between 1st January, 1947, and the date of the announcement should not benefit but we recommend that officers who were in the Colony on duty on 1st January, 1947 and who have subsequently died, retired in the normal course of events or been invalided should have their salaries, death gratuities, gratuities or pensions recalculated as if they had been on the revised scales at the time of death, invaliding or retirement.
RULES FOR CONVERSION
195. Although we have worked out detailed tables to show how various classes of officers at various incremental points on existing scales should be allowed to convert to the new scales, we have not included these tables in our Report, because we consider that the details of conversion can be more easily worked out when final approval of the new scales has been received. We recommend however that where the old and the new scales are of comparable length, the following rules should be adopted :-
(i) Where an officer on an incremental scale has the necessary quali- fications to entitle him to convert fully to the new scale appropriate to his grade, and has passed all the prescribed intervening efficiency bars, he shall receive the same number of increments to the maximum limit in the new scale as he has already received in his old scale.
(ii) Where an officer has not the necessary qualifications which it is contemplated that an officer in his grade should in future on entry possess or obtain subsequently to entry, the Government should exercise its discretion whether the same number of increments as he has earned in his old scale should be accorded him up to the maximum limit in his new scale, provided of course that no officer should receive less basic pay than he receives at present when it is taken into consideration that the new basic incorporates elements for rent, depreciation in the value of money, and in some instances other allowances.
(iii) Rules (i) and (ii) should apply also in cases where the new scale is slightly shorter than the present scale, provided of course that the maximum of the new scale cannot be exceeded.
(iv) Where an officer is on the maximum salary of an incremental scale and is transferred to an incremental scale which has more incremental steps than his existing scale, he may, if duly qualified, receive one increment in the new scale for each year which he has spent on the maximum of his previous scale, subject of course to the maximum of the new scale.
(v) An officer on a fixed basic salary shall transfer to a corresponding fixed basic salary if such a fixed basic salary has been assigned to his post under the new scheme but where an incremental scale has been provided, he shall be given one increment on the new scale for every year he has served on his previous fixed salary.