When the largest civil service union announced at the 11th hour before the release of the government pay-trend survey last month that it was recommending a pay freeze, to weather the tough times with the rest of the Hong Kong public, no one was fooled. Thus, when the survey results were released, showing that wages in the private sector had all fallen, no one was surprised.
The economic crisis is no joke. Layoffs, pay cuts and the like are happening weekly. A record number of people have applied to defer tax payments. Those who still have a job are thankful to be commuting daily to make a living, albeit a reduced one.
With the unemployment rate high and rising, the nasty economic performance figures released by the government this month are very real - at least for those of us in the private sector.
Civil service union leaders have said 'the public might have an impression that since politically appointed ministers should cut pay, so should the civil servants. That should not be so because it's a political decision taken by political appointees. We are civil servants'.
When people hear such things, they cannot help but wonder whether all the red tape and paper civil servants push around has blinded them to reality. The pangs of this global crisis may not be felt within government offices, but it does not mean that those in the public sector are immune or excused. A shrinking public purse equates to a reduction in wages, and the public reasonably expects it. And there is nothing political about that.
Hong Kong's civil service was once highly regarded in the community; civil servants were recognised as among society's best and brightest. So what, then, has made our public servants hopelessly out of touch with the rest of society?