CO129-602-6 Harbour Department- proposed reorganisation 17-10-1946 - 8-1-1948 — Page 24

Extract from Hong Kong Salaries Commission

Report

24

Harbour Department.

124.

In our recommendations for the remuneration of the Harbour Department staff, we have assumed that the reorganisation scheme proposed by the Harbour Master is acceptable to Government in principle. We have accordingly raised the posts of Deputy Harbour Master and Principal Surveyor of Ships to the same level as the Assistant Directors in the Public Works' Department and on the assumption that the post of Assistant Harbour Master which is at present vacant will be abolished, we have made no recommendation for the salary of that post.

125.

We have regraded the ship surveyors and senior ship surveyors and placed them on scales corresponding to those for Public Works Department engineers and executive engineers respectively. To allow for the high average age of entry of ship surveyors we recommend that these officers should enter the professional scale at $12720 per annum.

126.

We recommend that in future boarding officers together with the Chief Assistant Junk Inspector, the Assistant Shipping Master and the Boatswain at Yaumati Slipway should be known as Marine Officers and should be on a common scale running from $7680 to $11520. We recommend that future recruits to this grade should be required to be in possession of a Master's Certificate. We have prescribed a three year probation during which marine officers should be required to take the first two certificates in Cantonese. We also recommend that the Chief Boarding Officer, the Chief Inspector of Junks and Cargo Boats and the Deputy Shipping Master should be called senior marine officers and be on a common salary scale. We also recommend that the present holder of the post of Inspector of Lighthouses should, in view of his special qualifications, be placed on the same scale as a senior marine officer. When the post falls vacant, we are of the opinion that the new scale should only be given to an officer with equal qualifications.

127.

We propose that assistant junk inspectors should be renamed assistant marine officers grade II and be placed on a scale similar to that for Police sub-inspectors grade II, and that the Senior Assistant Junk Inspector should be renamed Assistant Marine Officer grade I and should be on a salary scale of $4800 rising by annual increments of $300 to $5400 per annum.

128.

For lighthouse-keepers we propose a scale commencing at $2400 per annum and rising to $6900 per annum with an efficiency bar between $4800 per annum and $5100 per annum. We recommend that principal lighthouse-keepers and the Officer in Charge of the Gunpowder Depot should enter the technical officers' scale at $7200 per annum and rise to $9600 by annual increments of $480.

129.

We propose a common scale for floating staff in all departments to include all engineers, coxswains, boatswains, seamen and stokers, except deck staff in the Police and Fire Brigade. We recommend that all such staff except deck staff in the Police and Fire Brigade should be under the general control of the Harbour Master and should be appointed and trained by him and seconded as required to other departments.