TNAG-0822-FCO40-1029-Policy-on-salaries-for-civil-servants-in-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 281

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Para. 172 ".... if it were possible to obtain for any specific

job a set of rates representative of the community as a whole which could be arranged in order from top to bottom... the Civil Service rate should be not lower than the median but not above the upper quartile."

Para. 173 In practice, however, the field of selection will

ratoly, if ever, be representative of the community as a whole since we have proposed that it should consist of good employers'. This, so far as it goes, leads us to suggest that the right range in which to make comparisons should be around the median."

Appendix E (page2) Para.5

The Priestley Report provided a definition of a good employer in personnel management terms, rather than in salary terms, as follows :

Para. 146 The good employer is not necessarily the one who

offers the highest rates of pay. He seeks rather to provide stability and continuity of employment and consults with representatives of his employees upon changes that affect both their remuneration and their conditions of work. Ho provides adequate facilitios for training and advancement and carries on a range of practics which today constitute good management whether they be formularised in joint consultation along Civil Service lines or not. Such employers are likely to be among the more progressive in all aspects of management policy. Their rates of remuneration will compare well with those of the generality of employers, will move readily but not atypically upward when the trend is in that direction and will be rather more stable than most when the trend is downwards."

B. The S.A.T. Unit's commerts

(a) The S.A.T. Unit is fully agreed the method of setting the median

and upper quartile of rates as stipulated in the F.I.U. Report.

(b) The 3. A. T. Unit has recognized that when the Pay Invostigation

Unit set its pay level at that of a good employer in the private sector, it would be subjective and would probably lead to dispute letween the Official Side and the Staff Side as stipulated in the said report. Therefore the Covernment should have realized that the existing dispute between both sides is

The unavoidable and ithin the expectation of the P.I.U. Report. occurrence of pay dispute will only be a matter of time, sooner or later. The "Poster Campaign" previously undertaken will therefore be regarded as a impellent and passive action adopted by the S.A.T. Unit in respect of the downward trend of salary and inadequate advancement prospects they have been confronted with.

This may

not be a proper channel in the eyes of the Official Side; but we do not agree that the "Poster Campaign has produced any misleading to public.

(c) We repeat and emphasize the statement of the Priestley Report

para.146.

We trust that a good employer seeks rather to provide stability and continuity of the employment and consults with representatives of his employees upon changes that affect both their remuneration and their conditions of work.

"A good employer provides adequatè facilities for

training and advancement.....

The present policies adopted by the Government are in fact contradictory to the Priestley Report, especially to the S.A.T. Grade.

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