Civil Service Branch
Civil Service Consultation Document
Civil Service Terms of Appointment & Conditions of Service
Chapter III - Conditions of Service
Existing policy on civil service remuneration provides that the pay and fringe benefits of civil servants should be broadly comparable with those paid by good employers in the private sector. The aim is to offer what is necessary and sufficient to attract and retain staff of a suitable calibre to provide the public with an effective and efficient service. Any new conditions of service to be drawn up will not apply to serving P&P officers except where they choose to switch to new P&P terms.
Discussion
3.2
In considering what form the new conditions of service should take, the Administration has had regard to current local and overseas conditions of service. The thinking is that the new conditions of service should, as far as possible, be consistent with those now existing. One option, therefore, would be simply to adopt one of the existing sets of conditions of service, either local or overseas.
3.3
The adoption of the current overseas conditions of service would clearly be inappropriate, since these are largely designed to cater for the special circumstances of people serving away from their own countries. Moreover, to a considerable extent, they are based on a situation prevailing many years ago when international transport and communications were comparatively inconvenient, and the social infrastructure of Hong Kong was relatively underdeveloped. It is felt that adoption of these conditions of service would, in some respects, be inconsistent with the aim described in paragraph 3.1, would be excessively generous in comparison with private sector practice, and would thus represent an unjustifiable charge on public funds.
3.4
Straightforward adoption of existing local conditions of service would be expedient, although in some respects notably in regard to housing benefits -these may be too inflexible to cater for the genuine needs of those officers who will continue to be recruited from overseas. Notwithstanding this inherent inflexibility, this remains a possible option.
3.5
The alternative would be to base the new conditions of service on the current local conditions of service, but to take the opportunity both to introduce flexibility to cater for the differing needs of officers appointed from overseas and on agreement terms of service, and to introduce changes to bring these conditions into line with today's
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