An overhaul of civil service salaries will be fair and lawful, the Secretary for Civil Service pledged yesterday.
Appealing for workers' views on the contentious review, Joseph Wong Wing-ping said people's concerns about civil service pay should not be ignored.
He vowed that the principles of 'lawfulness, fairness and reasonableness' would be adhered to when considering the pay policy.
'I pledge to be fair to colleagues while being accountable to the public,' Mr Wong said in a letter to 180,000 civil servants.
A taskforce is reviewing the pay policy amid criticism that officials' salaries have outstripped most sectors after pay cuts and lay-offs in the private sector.
Mr Wong said: 'To us civil servants, reasonable pay is not the only reward we want to get in return for our hard work. Public respect and recognition are equally important.'