Civil servants discuss below-inflation pay recommendation

Members of the Hong Kong government’s Pay Trend Survey Committee met on Wednesday afternoon to discuss whether or not to recognise a survey released last week that recommends civil servants get a pay rise below the inflation.

All members of the committee are civil servants. Before entered the meeting venue, one member said that some of them were “very dissatisfied” with the the survey’s recommended pay rise and might sign off on it.

The last time members of the committee refused to agree to survey’s pay recommendation was in 2009.

Another member, Li Kwai-yin of the Senior Civil Service Council staff side, said it was hard to predict if anyone would decline to recognise the survey recommendation. She said she had not made a decision yet and would see how the meeting went before deciding.

Last week, the government released its annual survey of private-sector pay trends that is take into consideration when deciding on any pay rise for Hong Kong’s 170,000 civil servants.

The survey found that junior-, middle- and senior-level employees had received increases of 5.3 per cent, 4.79 per cent and 3.38 per cent respectively in the past financial year.