About 46,000 Hospital Authority staff will receive an across-the-board wage increase this year, following the pay rise for civil servants.
Authority chairman Anthony Wu Ting-yuk said at a board meeting yesterday that it had agreed staff in band one should receive a 4.96 per cent pay rise, and those in bands two and three should get 4.62 per cent. He said this could improve morale among staff, who have been complaining about long hours and low pay.
He was speaking after Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok's announcement on Monday that the authority would receive more than HK$1.1 billion in extra funding for pay rises this year.
The authority has 7,000 band one staff, mostly senior doctors and nurses who receive a monthly salary of HK$45,240 or above, and 39,000 employees in bands two and three.
Authority chief executive Shane Solomon said the pay increase would apply to all staff, except for those who have already had a wage rise this year.
'They are not part of the government system so we will look separately at those to see if their pay increases were sufficient,' Mr Solomon said.
'But basically the large majority of staff would be receiving the pay increase. We will be following exactly with what the civil service is doing.'