Heavy pay cuts loom over university staff with the prospect of deep cuts in government funding for universities.
While speculation is rife about a double-digit cut in funding, there are fears that salaries could be cut by even more than 6 per cent, the level agreed between the government and civil servants last week. Institutions will be free to adjust salaries independently from July 1, should they decide to de-link their salary scale from that of the civil service, as proposed by the government.
'The de-linking plan will cause institutions to cut rather than increase wages. Many staff are likely to have their wages cut when their contracts are up for renewal, while a small number hired from abroad will receive high wages,' said Cheung Man-kwong, the education sector's representative in the Legislative Council.
About 65 per cent of the government's block grant to the eight publicly-funded tertiary institutions is allocated to staff salaries.
The government has pledged to maintain the same proportion of pay-related expenditure in the block grant after the de-linking.
But with the government's decision to cut civil servants' pay by 6 per cent over two years, universities are also expecting a reduction in the grant.
