TNAG-0916-FCO40-1127-Policy-on-salaries-and-pensions-for-civil-servants-in-Hong-K-1979 — Page 18

G.S. 84

XCR(79) 236

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Thirdly, the Report recommends that the $75 temporary non- pensionable allowance should be withdrawn with effect from 1st October 1979, on the understanding that the staff concerned will still receive some increase in their take home pay. The allowance was introduced in 1972 because of an overlap between the pay of certain staff on the Master Pay Scale and the pay of Model Scale 1 staff whom they supervised or from whom they were promoted or appointed. An examination shows that if the various pay scale recommendations in the Report are agreed, the maximum of the scale of these Master Pay Scale ranks will in all cases be higher than the related Model Scale 1 ranks, and that the allowance is no longer necessary. It will also be the case that all the ranks affected by the abolition of the allowance will receive an increase in take home pay despite its abolition,

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Finally, the Report makes recommendations concerning "conver- sion arrangements", that is to say the rules for converting the salary of an officer from one rank-scale to another. These recommendations are important.

38 In Report No 1, the Commission commented that the existing rules were too complicated and in some circumstances over-generous, and recommended that they should be simplified, and that the extent of any gain should not normally exceed one increment. The recommendation was accepted and it was stated in the Executive Council Memorandum that revised rules would be drawn up in consultation with the Commission and considered again in the context of the review of individual grades.

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In Chapter 19, the main principles are now set out as follows:

Subject to the overriding consideration that no-one should receive less pay on conversion, civil servants should convert to the same numbered point on the Master Pay Scale or other appropriate scale except that:

(a) where a civil servant's pay is less than the minimum of

the revised scale, he should receive the new minimum;

(b) where the revised scale has a higher maximum than

the old scale, a civil servant who has served for one or more years on the maximum of the old scale should convert to the next higher numbered point on the revised scale;

(c) where the maximum of the revised scale is lower than

the maximum of the old scale, a civil servant should be given a continuing option to retain his old scale on a personal basis until such time as it is to his advantage to transfer irrevocably to the revised scale.

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