Wage raise for civil workers coming soon

A proposal to raise the civil servants’ salaries this year could be ready soon, by the second meeting of a recently created committee, the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP) director said yesterday.
The first meeting of the ‘Committee of Deliberation on the Remuneration of Public Administration Workers’ was held yesterday and all members “agreed that four factors must be considered in determining the wage raise,” José Chu said.
The representatives from the public workers’ associations stressed that the government’s financial situation is very positive and that inflation remains high. But other issues, such as “private market wages and the population’s opinion,” must also be taken into account, the official added.
“We should have a concrete proposal by the next meeting,” Chu said. Asked when that meeting would take place next month, the SAFP director said it would happen “as soon as possible”.
But he added that the committee didn’t discuss the possibility of having the wage raise effective from January 1, 2012.
Chu emphasised that “there is no schedule” to implement the wage raise and added that any proposal would still have to go through the secretary for Administration and Justice, Florinda Chan, Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On, the Executive Council and only then to the Legislative Assembly.
The committee also discussed the need to create a mechanism to regularly review civil servants’ wages.
The SAFP vice-director, Kou Peng Kuan, said the body lacked data to look beyond the short-term. “We don’t have any study that reflects the private market conditions,” he explained.
Wages aside, last week the head of the major association of public workers, José Pereira Coutinho, said he was hopeful the committee would also discuss other benefits such as the housing subsidy and the birth and death allowance.
But yesterday Chu rejected that possibility and emphasised that “it’s not up to the committee to discuss other benefits, according to the Chief Executive dispatch that created it”.
And the SAFP director added that the commission would also not discuss whether or not to raise magistrates’ salaries, thus contradicting the secretary for Administration and Justice.
Florinda Chan has said the committee could study whether or not to update the salaries of judges and public prosecutors, which have remained unchanged since the handover. Last October the president of local courts Sam Ho Fai said newly appointed magistrates are being underpaid when compared to the Administration’s legal advisors.