Major unions give green light on suggestion to bump Hong Kong civil servants’ pay by as much as a record 7.26 per cent
- Survey suggests salary increases starting at 2.04 per cent for the government’s 180,000-strong workforce
- The Executive Council will consider various factors before deciding whether to approve recommendations, says convenor of the city’s de facto cabinet
Hong Kong’s major civil service unions have endorsed an advisory committee’s controversial suggestion that senior civil servants receive a pay rise as high as 7.26 per cent.
Lee Fong-chung, chairman of the Hong Kong Senior Government Officers Association, said that while it was ultimately up to the Executive Council, the leader’s de facto cabinet, and the government to decide on the actual adjustment, authorities had a history of following the survey recommendations.
“In the past two decades, there were only six occasions when it did not follow ... including the past two years when pay was frozen,” he said.
The findings, based on data collected from more than 100 private companies, suggested salary rises starting at 2.04 per cent for junior-ranking staff to 7.26 per cent for high-earners in the civil service. If approved, the suggested 7.26 increase would beat the 7.24 per cent rise in 2011 to be the most generous since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
The survey cited the city’s improving economic situation and the fact government workers did not receive a pay rise in the past years.
Lee Luen-fai, chairman of the Pay Trend Survey Committee, insisted the findings objectively reflected the situation among established private companies in the city.