Civil servants cautioned over pay-cut protest
Senior civil servants should 'take appropriate action at the appropriate time' or risk losing public support, Executive Council convener Leung Chun-ying said yesterday when commenting on the move to cut officials' salaries by 5.38 per cent. The comments by Mr Leung - who defended the cut, saying it complied with the pay adjustment system and public opinion - came after fellow cabinet member Cheng Yiu-tong split with the government on Friday by opposing the cut. Asked whether he would discipline Mr Cheng for breaking ranks despite the principle of collective responsibility, Mr Leung said he would have to study the comments.
No bias against unionists, says productivity chief
Productivity Council management did not discriminate against staff with union backgrounds, executive director Wilson Fung Wing-yip said on a radio programme. Employees' work was assessed and graded, and those in the lowest grade were given nine months to improve, he said. Five employees had been fired and one of them was a union member, he said. Kowloon City Court on Tuesday found Mr Fung not guilty of threatening to fire a union chairman if a sacked union member staged a protest against his dismissal.
Job seekers jockey for positions
Job seekers flocked to the Jockey Club's interview day at Tin Ching Estate in Tin Shui Wai yesterday, hoping to land one of 1,800 part-time positions on offer. About 1,500 will be at the new Tin Shui Wai Telebet centre and 300 at the club's off-course betting branches and racecourses. The pay rate for part-time betting-service assistants starts at HK$41 an hour. The club held a job fair in Tin Shui Wai in April and it has been flooded with 29,000 applications for part-time service assistant positions in its betting division.
