A PAY survey showing a 10 per cent rise in salaries for employees in leading firms has prompted fears among unionists that bosses may use it as an excuse to suppress wage increases.
Unionists condemned the findings as misleading and unrepresentative because they excluded labour productivity in the calculation of real wage increases.
The survey by the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management, which last month polled 53 leading banks and firms with more than 100 staff, shows the average increase to be below 10 per cent.
The institute's survey committee chairman, Patrick Maule, said 10 per cent pay rises represented a one per cent real increase in spending power, given the inflation rate of 8.9 per cent last December.
But Mr Maule admitted that the level of increases was dropping.
'This, however, is a smaller real increase than we have measured in past years,' Mr Maule said, citing 1994 findings of a 2.5 per cent real increase given the 11.1 per cent pay rise and 8.6 per cent inflation.
The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions last night said the survey confirmed that employers were suppressing pay awards and urged workers to fight for a minimum rise of 13.5 per cent for the year.
