LOSSES ON EQUAL PAY, PENSIONABILITY FOR MARRIED WOMEN AND MATERNITY LEAVE AT HALF PAY SCHEMES IN CIVIL SERVICE
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At the creation of the Grado, its salary was set at a scale which was equivalent to the female rate, i.e. 75 % of the male rate, of Points 7 16 which were later converted to Points 8 16 of "Scale C Clerical Scale" in the Civil Service of Hong Kong. In other words, prior to the enforce- ment of the Equal Pay Scheme 1969, Shorthand-Audio Typists in the civil service of Hong Kong had been discriminatingly paid at the female rate of the captioned salary scale although there were no male counterparts in the Grade.
It was admitted by the official-side that the Secretarial Class did not do quite as well as many female officers in other classes at the adoption of the Scheme, but alleged that this sort of things was the essence of a 'package' and the particular package was considered beneficial to female officers in Government as a whole and achieved aligment of their terms of service. It is therefore correct to say that female officers in other grades in the civil service of Hong Kong did enjoy benefits from the said Scheme but the Shorthand-Audio Typists and members of related grades whose grievances created by the Scheme were not adjusted.
Albeit the Salaries Commission 1971, Hong Kong, took into account the fact that lady officers in grades excluded from the Equal Pay Scheme had been progressively losing out in comparison with their sisters ( e.g. woman clerical officers) who had been gradually catching up with their male counterparts in said scheme, yet the scale for Shorthand-Audio Typist Grade which the Commission recommended and hoped its effect would re-adjust this anomaly, was far from satisfactory and fair,
By the Commission's recommendations, the minimum of Shorthand-Audio Typist Grade was increased by 14.28 % while that of Typist Grade was increased by 34.18 %, Personal Secretaries Class I and II by 18.8 % and 7.34 % respectively, Clerical Assistants and Clerical Officer Class II by 27.11%. Grounds and logios relating to such variances are not under- stood.
In 1972, the Shorthand-Audio Typists had to sacrifice full-pay maternity leave in exchange for half-pay maternity leave, in the interests of uniformity with female officers in other grades in the Civil Service of Hong Kong who were willing to do so in exchange for a 25% increase on equal pay and pensionability. The benefit of marriage gratuity was also forfeited.
To avoid compensating the losses suffered by members in the Grade, the official-side sophisticated that in accepting the Commission's recommendations and introducing the new scales for the Grade, also accepted that officers in the Grade were at that time being paid for the job, and that there could be no going back beyond 1971.
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