Legislation for a civil service pay cut is scheduled for a final vote in mid-December despite a last-minute attempt by a lawmaker to block its passage.
Under the bill, which is likely to be passed by the Legislative Council, senior civil servants earning more than HK$48,401 a month can expect to have their salaries reduced by 5.38 per cent from January 1.
But the pay cut, which was endorsed by the Executive Council in June, may not last longer than three months, as the next annual pay adjustment is due in April.
According to a paper prepared by the administration for legislators in June, the estimated full-year saving for the civil service and government-funded organisations would be HK$2.1 billion.
But if the cut remains effective for only three months, the savings to taxpayers would be only about HK$529 million.
At the final meeting of the Legco committee scrutinising the bill yesterday, independent lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee brought a non-binding motion to stop the government sending the bill to the legislature for final endorsement.
The motion was passed with backing from two unionist lawmakers, but it failed to persuade the government to withdraw the proposal.