RESTRUCTURING OF THE SHORTHAND-AUDIO TYPIST GRADE 1977
In early 1976, the Secretary for the Civil Service, Hong Kong, convened a Committee on the Secretarial Class to review the work, pay and structure of the Secretarial Class and to make recommendations for new pay scales and conditions of service for the said Class.
Members in the Typist, Personal Secretary and Confidential Assistant Ranks were nominated as staff-side representatives on the Committee of 13 members, save the Shorthand-Audio Typist Grade. It was alleged that the Secretary was unaware of the formation of the Shorthand- Audio Typist Unit which had in fact been formed in November 1975 under the suspices of the Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants' Association which is one of the three members in the Senior Civil Service Council, Hong Kong, and that there was also a limit to the size of the Committee if it was to be manageable. This reflects on the reasonableness, if not discrimination, on the part of the official-side towards the Shorthand-Audio Typist Grado.
In February 1976, the Unit petitioned the Secretary for arrangements of consultative meetings which subsequently commenced in August 1976. By then, the tasks of the said Committee on Secretarial Class had already completed.
Although certain agreements, as alleged by the official- side, were reached at the mectings between the official-side and representatives of the said Unit, majority of Shorthand- Audio Typists were dissatisfied with the changes which were considered unfavourable and unacceptable. It was found that the Unit's representatives had not been given the mandate by its members to make agreements with the official-side to restructure the Shorthand-Audio Typist Grade along the lines of official-side's proposals.
On 4th December 1976, a now Committee was elected and authorized by a General Meeting of the Unit's members to represent the Unit in further negotiation with the authority. This second Committee was later regarded by the Secretary as duly elected and representative.
A letter bearing the signatures of 337 Shorthand-Audio Typists was submitted to the Secretary requesting the imple- mentation of the new restructure be suspended pending the outcomes of further negotiation. However, the proposals for restructuring were approved by the Finance Committee of Hong Kong Government on 8th December 1976.
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