Opinion | Civil service pay rise, Covid-19 mean John Lee’s team has had to hit the ground running

A new government usually enjoys a honeymoon period as top officials ease into the job, but the pandemic and civil servants’ pay rise row mean the Lee administration has been thrown in at the deep end

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Chief Executive John Lee, flanked by Executive Council convenor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, speaks to the media on July 5. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 6:45am, 18 Jul 2022

It looks like new Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and his team will have to do without the usual honeymoon period. The new occupants of high office are usually given a break for the first 100 days by both the legislature and the media so they can gather their teams and ease into their important work.

Other than the fact popularity ratings are hard to sustain without a popular election, the “new normal” after the political system shake-up doesn’t seem to leave much room for a dip in the pool. If anything, the new administration has been thrown in at the deep end.

While Lee has yet to fully form his team, the political bombshell dropped by the Pay Trend Survey Committee in May over its endorsement of the proposed increases for government workers made sure Lee’s administration would have to deal with a no-win situation from the start.

The proposed pay rises of 7.26 per cent for senior government workers, 4.55 per cent for middle-ranking officials and 2.04 per cent for junior civil servants were shocking. The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce slammed the proposed increases as “out of touch with reality”.

The “reality” is that the most important business community – those people who still have a job – have suffered as a result of the Covid-19-stricken economy. They have taken pay cuts, dealt with having to take no-paid leave and enjoyed very little job security amid rising inflation.

The “reality” also includes the need for the government to boost the morale of the civil service, which was already struggling after the social turmoil that erupted in 2019. Compound that with the fight against Covid-19 – which has made life difficult for everyone, whether in the public or private sector – and anyone could see that the issue came to the fore at the worst possible time.