TNAG-0992-FCO40-1211-Policy-on-salaries-and-pensions-for-civil-service-in-Hong-Ko-1980 — Page 109

香港社會工作者總工會

HONG KONG SOCIAL WORKERS' GENERAL UNION

€7, SHANTUNG STREET VF

BLOCK B, KOWLOON

HONG KONG SOCIAL WORKERS' GENERAL UNION Mission to London: Appeal for support

1st October, 1980

In Hong Kong two-third of the welfare services are provided by the voluntary agencies (V.A.) which are (about 90g) heavily subsidised and subvented by the Government. According to the Welfare Policy Papers, Government recognised its responsibility of subventing the V.A. to provide necessary services to needy people. And the Govt guarantees that sufficient public funds will be allocated to the V.A. so that they can employ and pay social workers wages comparable to their Government-employed counterparts. With the rapid development of social welfare in H.K., we have a very serious problem of social work manpower shortage and wastage.

In April, 1979 the Govt completed its own "Welfare Class Review" After the review, all Govt social workers were regraded with increased salary, better career advancement opportunities and with more chance for in-service training. But none of these benefits have been provided for V.A. social workers who are doing comparable tasks and having comparable qualification. V.A. social workers were very offended and frustrated by this unfair treatment as the Govt has obviously violated. the recognised principles of "Partnership" & "Parity" (Equal Work: Equal Pay). This inequality will further aggravate the problem of manpower wastage which in turn affect the proper functioning of services to the needy as more and more social workers leave the field as they find their prospects dim and being unfairly treated.

Since its embroyonic stage in October, 1979 the Hong Kong Social Workers General Union and other concerned groups have been exerting pressure on the Govt for equal treatment. Only after these, the Govt agreed to form a Steering Committee, supported by a Working Group, to conduct a similar review for V.A. However, our Union, a legally registered Union for both Govt and non-Govt social workers, established in February, 1980, was excluded from direct participation in the Steering Committee and the Working Group which consist of Govt representatives and representatives of heads and administrators of the V.A. Thus a review of the conditions of our work is being carried out without any union involvement at all. We believe that such a situation would be quite unacceptable in U.K.

After its formation in early February this year, the Steering Committee has only met once to discuss the issue. However, they did not set any schedule for this review. On 26th March, 1980 a member of the H.K. Legislative Council called for the Govt to give an assurance that social workers of the V.A. should have comparable pay, backdated to April, 1979, career advancement and in-service training opportunities comparable with our Govt counterparts who have been enjoying these benefits since April, 1979. But the Govt just assured the Legislative Council member that the Govt will respect the principle of equal work: equal pay, however, it did not agree to pay social workers with revised salary backdated to April, 1979. Social workers of V.A. have been receiving sub-standard treatment for 18 months. For most individual social workers, the difference of salary between working in V.A. and for the Govt has been amounted to £1.500 for these 18, months.

./Throughout the