CO129-599-2 Salaries Commission- 1947 Report 1-1-1947 - 31-12-1949 — Page 9

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CHAPTER I.

PROCEDURE AND MEETINGS.

Preliminary Steps.

1

At our preliminary meeting held on 24th March we decided to issue invitations to Heads of Government Departments, and to recognised Civil Service Associations to submit representations regarding salaries and all forms of emoluments and allowances, terms of pension, leave, passages and medical treatment, and any other relevant matters connected with conditions in the public service. Associations were asked to nominate persons authorised to represent them, if they wished to submit oral as well as written evidence. Heads of Departments were in addition requested to submit proposals for such regrading of classes of employees within their departments as they thought fit. Invitations were sent by press notice to the public and by letter to the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and to a number of the leading commercial and industrial concerns to submit representations and to give evidence on any matters which they might consider to be relevant to our inquiry. 12th April was fixed as the closing date by which written representations were to be received.

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As a result of these invitations written representations were received from all Heads of Departments and from the individuals, concerns and organisations listed in Appendix I

3.

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We are particularly grateful to the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce for making available to us the results of a survey on the current wage rates of clerical workers and to the various firms which supplied us with valuable information about the emoluments they were themselves paying to their staffs and the methods they were using to compensate their employees for the present high cost of living.

Meetings.

4.

We held in all 55 meetings at 27 of which oral evidence was taken. The witnesses at these meetings included Heads of Departments, officers in charge of certain technical sub-departments, a number of individual officers and the representatives of various Civil Service Associations. In addition we invited and heard evidence on several occasions from Professor R. Robertson of the Hong Kong University and others. full list of persons who gave oral evidence is attached at Appendix II.

5.

The information supplied to us was of great value and assistance and we wish to acknowledge the courtesy with which all our requests were met both within and outside the Government service.

Details of Procedure.

6.

At our preliminary meeting on 24th March the Chairman outlined the problems facing the Commission and we decided after considering our terms of reference that in view of the need for early detailed recommendations

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