Sessional_Paper_1948 — Page 12

to adhere to a system of remuneration of daily labour fixed on the advice of the Labour Advisory Board we have taken into consideration the fact that such remuneration is more liable to be affected by changes in the price of rice and the general economic situation in the Colony than are the emoluments of monthly paid officers. Any revised daily wage rates which we might fix at the present time might in a very short space of time become inappropriate and outdated. We feel that any recommendations on our part in this connexion would deprive the present system of its flexibility and react to the detriment both of the workers themselves and of Government.

19. We have recommended revised salary scales for many officers in the lower grades who are at present employed by Government on a monthly basis, but who would if employed by private concerns be on a daily paid basis. We have done so because such employees, if not on the permanent pensionable establishment, are entitled under Regulations C of the Pensions Ordinance, 1932, to allowances on retirement. We recommend that in future as many of the lower grade staff as possible should be employed on daily rates of pay, but with a guaranteed 30 day month and that monthly rates of pay and posts on the permanent pensionable establishment should be confined as far as the lower grades of the service are concerned to officers with a special degree of skill in their particular trade or calling, to officers with long service and to those performing supervisory duties. We feel that such a system would give Heads of Departments greater discretion and freedom in the employment of labour and would free the Secretariat from a considerable amount of routine personnel work.

BASIS OF REVISION

20. In drawing up proposed basic salary scales we have, wherever possible, borne in mind the revised salary scales accepted in Great Britain in recent years as a result of various inquiries such as the Rushcliffe Reports on Nurses, the Spens Report on the Remuneration of General Practitioners, the Burnham Reports on Teachers' Salaries, the scales adopted in the United Kingdom for the Scientific Civil Service, the proposals of the Joint Negotiating Committee (Hospital Staffs) for the salaries of medical technicians, the rates adopted by municipal authorities for engineers, etc. It has not always been possible to make direct comparisons since in some cases local standards and requirements differ from those in the United Kingdom. The present income levels of many local private medical practitioners, for example, are higher than those contem- plated in the Spens Report, but this is in all probability a temporary phenomenon due to the disruption in medical training during the Japanese occupation and the consequent shortage of qualified practitioners. In such cases we have assumed in fixing basic salaries for locally recruited staff that the present income levels which are inflated by reason of scarcity value will in due course be stabilised at a figure more nearly approximating to the United Kingdom level, We have also referred to the reports of various recent Salaries Commissions in other Colonies and in particular to those dealing with the public services in West Africa and Palestine.

PERMANENT DECREASE IN THE PURCHASING POWER OF MONEY

21. Another subject which has figured prominently in our deliberations has been the assessment of the permanent decrease in the purchasing power of money since the war. We have reluctantly, but unavoidably, had to put on the prophet's mantle in the perhaps foolhardy attempt to state how much of the present rise in the cost of living is due to temporary dislocations caused by war such as the shortages of essential foodstuffs, textiles and transport which can be expected to right themselves in time and how much of the rise might be regarded as permanent. Cost of living indices for Hong Kong for the period after the First World War are not available, but those for Singapore show that the cost of living for Asiatics rose to 110% above the 1914 level in 1920, dually declined to 50% in 1922 and remained at about 50 to 60% above the 1914 level until 1930 when the effects of the world slump began to make them- selves felt. The cost of living for Europeans in Singapore in 1920 rose to about 80% and in the next ten years settled down to about 55% to 60% above that of 1914. Similarly, in the United Kingdom it is understood that the decreased purchasing value of money after the First World War was reflected in a 35% to 40% increase in salaries and wages. The rise in the cost of living which has occurred in the Far East after the Second World War has been on a far greater scale. The whole economy of the area has been disrupted by the tide of war and it has seemed to us reasonable to assume that it will take longer than it did after the First World War for stable economic conditions to be regained. It is clear that for some time to come, it will be necessary for Government to pay in addition to revised salaries, which will to some extent reflect the decrease in purchasing power of money, a variable cost of living