TNAG-1922-FCO40-2727-Future-of-the-judiciary-in-Hong-Kong-1989 — Page 124

COURT INTERPRETERS' ASSOCIATION,

LG3, SUPREME COURT BUILDING, QUEENSWAY,

HONG KONG

法庭傳譯主任協會

香港金鐘道最高法院大廈低層三樓

TEL: 5-8214364

Patron:

Mr. David Mudd, M. P.

Miss Maria W.C. Tam, Barrister

Mr. A.M. Niamatullah, Barrister

Miss Audrey Eu

Mr. Francis K.W. Cheung, Solicitor

Legal Adviser:

Mr. Michael Cheuk

Date: 31st December, 1988.

Sir David Ford, K.B.E., L.V.0., J.P.

The Honourable the Chief Secretary

Hong Kong

Dear Sir,

PETITION

In the Matter of the Representation of Members of the Court Interpreters'

Association for the Restructuring of the Court Interpreter Grade

We, Court Interpreters serving faithfully at various levels of the courts of

Hong Kong, have long expressed our dissatisfaction over our poor career prospects

and have on repeated occasions made pleas to the authorities for improvement.

Despite the efforts that we made in this regard, we have grounded to a bleak

stalemate.

We learned from the speech of Miss Y.H. Lee, a Chief Chinese Language

Officer who was invited as a guest speaker at a recent seminar that there are at

the moment 17 Chief Chinese Language Officers and 106 Senior Chinese Language

Officers in their establishment of 493 officers. In the Judiciary, we have only

one Chief Court Interpreter and 6 Senior Court Interpreter posts in our

establishment of 156 which is about one-third that of the Chinese Language

Officers. This means that the prospect of advancement for the Chinese Language

Officers to the chief rank is 1 to 29, whereas that of the Court Interpreters is

1 to 156 and the chance of promotion for the Chinese Language Officers to the

senior rank is 1 to 4.6, whereas the Court Interpreters is 1 to 26, not to

mention the rank of controllers which does not exist in our grade.