TNAG-0992-FCO40-1211-Policy-on-salaries-and-pensions-for-civil-service-in-Hong-Ko-1980 — Page 126

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The principal finding of the Working Party was that there were certain duties now performed by staff in the grades which were not included in the ranking criteria at the time of the 1977 Technical Grades Review, and that these should constitute new evidence to support a case for improving the pay scales of the grades. The Report of the Working Party contains no arguments for revised pay scales, let alone any suggestion as to what such scales might be. The Working Party bases its findings solely on a list of duties performed by staff of the Technical Officer and Survey Officer grades which they consider were not included in the ranking criteria at the time of the 1977 Technical Grades Review.

Before turning to the results of our further review of the Technical and Survey Officer grades there are two points we would wish to make which are of paramount importance in the consideration of requests by staff for improved pay scales based on changes or additions to duty lists.

The

First, the two principal documents relating to the job content of various civil service ranks and grades, "Guides to Appointment" (formerly Details of Post) and "Ranking Criteria", are prepared by Government for specific and limited purposes. former are no more than check lists for the guidance of officers

The latter are used to dealing with recruitment and promotion. describe those aspects of jobs at a particular rank level which help to distinguish the responsibility level of one rank from those immediately above or below it. Neither is an exhaustive duty list nor, in our opinion, is it either practicable or

In the case desirable that they should attempt to be so.

The

of ranking criteria, which only exist for a minority of ranks, their value in their present form is open to question. duties of civil servants are bound to undergo change, just as is the work of private sector employees, as the world as a whole and Hong Kong in particular develop. Furthermore, staff must be prepared to accept and cope with the introduction of new technology and management techniques as an inevitable consequence of progress.

The second point we wish to make is that it is quality rather than quantity that establishes the appropriate pay for any job. The assignment of additional duties to a post may simply involve a re-allocation of time spent on certain jobs without any change in the level or range of responsibilities of the staff concerned. Indeed, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility for the addition of relatively simple and straight forward tasks to lower the overall responsibility of a job. Thus only if the additional duties to be performed result in a raising of the level of responsibility of a post, or if their performance introduces a new element in the factors used for determining pay scales, are they likely to justify improved pay scales.

For

Staff in the Technical and Survey Officer grades are employed in several departments, with the majority in the Public Works Department, and in a number of streams or disciplines. example, staff in the Technical Officer grade may be employed in the Architectural, Cartographic or Electrical and Mechanical streams etc. while Survey Officers may be employed in the

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