Sec. 4/1662/47.
SAVINGRAM
To the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
From the Governor, Hong Kong.
Date
10th
No.....
532
November, 1949.
STAFF
FIC
20
9
i
Petition from the European Health Inspectors of the Medical Department and the Sanitary Department and Urban Council, concerning an extension of their present salary scale ($400 - $800 per month).
1.
The attached petition is forwarded in accordance with Colonial Regulation 78. It follows representations made by these expatriate officers last year after the publication of the Salaries Commission Report culminating in a petition addressed to myself to the effect that their present scale should be extended from the present maximum of 800 per month to 1040 per month. Very careful consideration was given to these representations and the questions of qualifications, departmental organization, promotion prospects, and in particular the possibility of repercussions in other similar grades in the service were closely examined. As a result I decided that there was insufficient justification for any extension of the salary scale for Health Inspectors, but a comparison of the establishment of Health Inspectors with the establishment of similar grades of officers in other departments, e.g., Police, Prisons and Labour, convinced me that there was a case for providing better promotion prospects. Further, owing to the post-war increase in the Colony's population, there was a real need for a larger number of senior posts. Accordingly I approved the provision of an additional six posts of Senior Health Inspector (840 - 960 per month) in the Estimates for 1949/50, which have since received your approval, and I am satisfied now that there are no grounds for maintaining that the position of Health Inspectors Grade I is in any way less favourable than that of similar grades elsewhere in the Service.
2.
There were two factors which disposed me to consider an extension of the salary scale last year. The first was the limitation of the present maximum of the scale in relation to Expatriation Pay, which affects the officers' pensionable emoluments. The figure for basic salary at which the rate of Expatriation Pay for male officers rises from 166.67 to 280 per month is $931 per month. A tendency was evident after publication of the Salaries Commission Report for officers on scales which stopped short of 931 per month to press for an extension beyond this point. A second factɔ was the specialised nature of the duties undertaken by certain of the Health Inspectors, e.g. in connection with the control of cemeteries, hawkers, etc., which precluded their obtaining the all-round experience of health work normally considered essential for promotion to the senior grade. Both these considerations were met adequately by the provision
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