TNAG-0992-FCO40-1211-Policy-on-salaries-and-pensions-for-civil-service-in-Hong-Ko-1980 — Page 73

CONFIDENTIAL **

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At present Housing Assistant is a one-rank grade with a pay scale of MPS 13 29. Staff are employed mainly in two branches :

(a) the state lianagement Branch which is concerned primarily with the day-to-day management of housing estates and applications for housing; and

(b) the Operations Branch which is mainly concerned with

squatter control, demolition and clearance and day-to-day management of temporary housing areas.

In the Estate Management Branch the duties of Housing Assistants include some work of a relatively routine nature such as rent collection, but we accept the view presented to us that the performance of these duties is essential if Housing Assistants are to maintain regular contact with housing estate tenants as part of their overall estate management responsibilities. Supervision and higher level responsibilities in the two branches are exercised by members of the Housing Manager grade.

As we have explained, the principal reason why we deferred making firm recommendations for the grade in Report No. 2 was the multiplicity of the educational qualifications prescribed for entry. The system we have adopted for setting pay scales has regard, among other things, to the minimum educational qualification necessary for the competent performance of the job concerned. Thus, in order to recommend a pay scale for the Housing Assistant grade it was necessary for us first to determine what the minimum qualification for entry to the grade should be.

In our Report No. 2 we said that we found it difficult to accept that a university degree should be a stipulated entry qualification for the Housing Assistant grade and we recommended that university graduates should receive the same starting pay as matriculants, i.e. IPS point 16. The recommendation was accepted by Government and nothing in the results of the jcb survey of the grade or the submissions received from staff and departmental management leads us to change this position. Also while a Polytechnic Higher Diploma or Post-secondary college diploma are suitable qualifications for appointment to the grade we do not consider they should be regarded as the minimum qualifications to permit the competent performance of the job concerned. At the other end of the educational spectrum we have noted that school certificate is a relic from the days before the Resettlement Assistant grade was merged with the Housing Assistant grade and that there has been no recruitment of school certificate holders for some considerable time.

After careful consideration we recommend that the minimum entry qualification for the Housing Assistant grade should be matriculation. We have reached this conclusion for two main reasons. First is the nature of the job itself. While we do not consider a university degree essential to the performance of the duties of a Housing Assistant we do feel that if staff are to fulfil their responsibilities in the estate management and operations fields efficiently, something more than school certificate is required. Matriculation as a minimum entry requirement will have the additional advantage of ensuring

CONFIDENTIAL/gre.