Civil-service pay dispute 'sees losers all round'
A rift between the government and its public servants is expected to worsen as ex-minister says there is room for talks
The insistence of the Leung Chun-ying administration on its pay rise offer, to the dismay of most civil servant groups, has created a "highly unfortunate" situation in which both sides emerge as losers, former minister Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee says.
The contentious proposal, announced by Secretary for the Civil Service Paul Tang Kwok-wai a week ago, grants a pay rise of 3.92 per cent for lower and middle salary bands and 2.55 per cent for the upper band.
Since Tang's announcement, three out of four councils on the government's Pay Trend Survey Committee - representing junior and senior civil servants, the police and other disciplined services - have rejected it.
They cite the failure of the figures to meet inflation or allege Tang has deviated from the four-decade-old wage mechanism.
And with the Executive Council giving its approval yesterday, unions say it has widened a rift between the government and the public servants.
Ip, a former security secretary who now sits on both the legislative and executive councils, called for more dialogue between Tang and the unions.