TNAG-0822-FCO40-1029-Policy-on-salaries-for-civil-servants-in-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 578

N

2.

We cannot find any good reason advanced by the Government in rejecting our claims

and we can only reckon that we are being singled out for special adverse

treatment, because the number of Shorthand-Audio Typists in government service

is very small (only about 400 in total) and our Association is therefore not

at all strong by trade union standards, and neither can we have the support of

any large trade union organisations behind us. We are very inexperienced in

handling negotiations and we think that the experienced officers on the

government side always try to out-manoeuvre us.

We can no longer maintain representations in Hong Kong and therefore hope

that we can obtain support from those interested in our cause in England.

We do not wish to ask for anything more than our entitlement but we feel

that we should be treated equally with other grades of the Civil Service and

the Government has given us no good reason why we should be discriminated

against in this way.

Our qualifications have been raised since the change in salaries scales was

proposed, but in practice our expectation has been reduced comparatively

with the Personal Secretaries with whom we have a close affinity and to whose

grade we look for promotion.

continued