Pay rise for Hong Kong’s 173,000 civil servants to be delayed for months due to protesters’ damage to Legislative Council complex
- Finance Committee was to approve annual salary increase before its three-month summer break
- But extensive protest damage has pushed the approval back until October at the soonest
The annual pay rise of Hong Kong’s nearly 173,000 civil servants cannot happen for months because of the damage to the legislature caused by recent extradition protests, senior union leaders said on Wednesday.
Li Kwai-yin, president of the Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants’ Association, and Steven Wong Hung-lok, chairman of the Senior Government Officers Association, said their best hope was that lawmakers would make approving their salary increase a priority when the legislature reconvenes in October.
The Executive Council on June 19 approved a pay rise of 5.26 per cent for civil servants in the lower and middle levels, while those in the upper level would get a 4.75 per cent rise.
But that was before hundreds of protesters stormed the Legislative Council complex on July 1 and damaged the building’s glass doors, electronic systems and more. The destruction and vandalism pushed the Legco president, Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen, to decide that lawmakers would not meet again until the new legislative year starts in October.