TNAG-0916-FCO40-1127-Policy-on-salaries-and-pensions-for-civil-servants-in-Hong-K-1979 — Page 23

ANNEX

I JOINT STATEMENT ISSUED ON BEHALF OF THE SENIOR CIVIL SERVICE COUNCIL

ON NOVEMBER 12TH 1979

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The Official Side agreed with the Staff Side that the Standing Commission should be asked to give early consideration to the comments of both staff and management on the First Report on Civil Service Pay. The Official Side had accordingly taken the matter up with the Commission and a Commission circular would be issued this week inviting staff and management to let the Commission have, as quickly as possible, all comments on the Report so that the Commission could consider how and in what order to fit them into their future programme of work.

Both sides agreed there were a number of points in the Report on which clarification by the Commission was required.

The Official Side agreed with the Staff Side view that a greater staff contribution to the work of the Standing Commission was desirable, and undertook to pursue this with the Commission.

The Official Side also agreed to ask the Commission to consider further the question of appropriate benchmarks and in particular the setting of benchmarks for polytechnic and other post-secondary qualifications.

The Staff Side, after careful and lengthy deliberation, considered that there were a number of points in the Report of the Standing Commission which required reconsideration. Whilst they would wish to see most of these points amended before the Report is submitted to Executive Council, they appreciated that because of the interlocking nature of the recommendations on the pay scales any amendment now would cause undesirable delay which would not be in the interest of the civil service as a whole. They therefore agreed that the Report should be forwarded to Executive Council with the request that Executive Council will undertake to refer any disputed pay scales and other matters concerning individual grades back to the Standing Commission for review as soon as possible. The review should also cover points such as the difference in treatment between disciplined and non-disciplined services and the adoption of a more comprehensive job evaluation scheme with Staff Side participation. In addition, they felt very strongly that Executive Council should be requested to look particularly into the appropriateness of the recommendations on the effective date and the conversion arrangements.

The Official Side also agreed that it would be desirable if the Standing Commission could indicate a reasonable timetable for reviewing points referred back to them.

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