CO129-573-16 Senior clerical and accounting staff- re-adjustment of salaries 27-6-1938 - 3-2-1939 — Page 8

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are proceeding generally on the lines of those

recommendations; and I shall be glad to know if

I may assume your approval of those recommendations

as applicable to officers of the Senior Clerical and

Accounting Staff on the new scales.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient, humble servant,

5

Governor.

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XXX CONFIDENTIAL.

Sir,

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG,

27th June, 1938.

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With reference to Sir Thomas Southorn's

I on 52 931/28 confidential despatch of the 15th of August, 1928, and to

previous correspondence regarding the establishment of a

Senior Clerical and Accounting Staff, I have the honour to

inform you that I have under consideration a re-adjustment

of certain salary scales of that staff.

Aust

Enclosure 1.

not recal

At Ad

nest bed

2.

The main defect of the present system of

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grading is the disproportion between the numbers in Class

III and in the Classes above, no less than 28 officers being in Class III, out of a total establishment of 48, excluding

probationers. The position is indicated in tabular form in

Enclosure 1. On normal expectations of vacancies officers

may anticipate spending at least 15 20 years in Class III.

Its maximum salary, however, is reached after 11 years

service. The inevitable result is an accumulation of

officers at the top of the scale, many of whom have been receiving their maximum salary for the scale for several

years. This promotion block has been, in recent years, the cause of continuous dissatisfaction and complaints.

3.

I am of the opinion that some improvement in

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

MALCOLM MACDONALD, M.P.,

&C.,

&c., &c.

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Enclosure 2.

the prospects of the members of Class III should be no

longer delayed, and I propose to effect this by an

amalgamation of Classes II and III so as to permit an

officer to pass through the scales of the two classes:

by normal increments with no more hindrance than an

efficiency bar in place of the former division of the

classes. Enclosure II shows in tabular form a comparison between the proposed and the existing scales. I think it desirable to take this opportunity of placing Senior Clerical and Accounting Staff on the same terms as to quarters as are proposed for future appointments to Unified Colonial Services and grades of comparable status; but I do not consider that the residential allowance

system should be extended to members of the Senior

Clerical and Accounting Staff, since they are in practice recruited in the Colony.

4.

My detailed proposals for bringing these

changes into operation are as follows:-

(a) All serving officers in Class III would be included nominally in the new Class II, but would retain their existing salary scales for the present. Provided that they pass the efficiency bar, they should be permitted to transfer to the new long scale at £520 after either (i) serving 12 years in Class III, or (ii) serving 3 years on the maximum of that scale. The latter provision is

necessary to cover the cases of officers who have transferred to the Senior Clerical and Accounting

Staff from other branches of the service and have

been permitted to enter the existing scale at incremental points higher than the minimum, so that they may in some cases have reached the maximum of

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