Nurses and other medical professionals who joined public hospitals after April 2000 are again calling for a pay rise following the Hospital Authority's allocation of HK$355 million a year to increase junior doctors' salaries.
The authority's director of cluster services, Allen Cheung Wai-lun, said yesterday the authority was still negotiating with nurses' unions and other staff for better pay for junior colleagues who joined after April 2000.
The authority introduced a lower pay scale in April 2000 because of the economic downturn.
'We hope a concrete proposal can be achieved next week. We hope to improve the pay scale of all 7,000 colleagues who joined after 2000, including about 2,200 doctors and 3,500 nurses, as soon as possible and at the same time,' Dr Cheung said.
The authority plans to increase doctors' salaries by 15 per cent to 38 per cent by December, at a cost of up to HK$355 million a year. Dr Cheung declined to disclose how much money would be needed to raise the pay of other staff.
The lawmaker representing the health services sector, Joseph Lee Kok-long, said the authority should award nurses an annual pay rise based on their years of experience.