Civil Service Pay Rises Mooted, Despite Freeze Call

Hong Kong's 180,000 or so civil servants should get pay rises of between 1.15 and 1.98 percent this year, a government-appointed panel has suggested, despite one union calling for salaries to be frozen amid the coronavirus crisis.

The Pay Trend Survey Committee has come up with the figures after looking at salary movements in around 100 private companies over a 12-month period. It is recommending increases of 1.15 percent for junior civil servants, 1.98 for middle-ranking workers, and 1.68 for senior staff.

Previous practice suggests that the Executive Council could boost the lowest figure to give junior civil servants the same increases as those in the middle ranks.

The committee's chairman, Lee Luen-fai, said they took into account pay adjustments in the private sector between April last year and April this year, so their study won't reflect any recent changes to the local employment market.

The proposed pay rises come after the Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants' Union called for salaries to be frozen in light of the damage the Covid-19 pandemic is wreaking to the SAR's economy.

Li Kwai-yin from the union said having seen the figures the committee has come up with, they will decide whether to pursue this call for a pay freeze before preparing advice for the Executive Council.

"The main principle of the Civil Service pay adjustment mechanism is that is shares the ups and downs of the economy," she said.

"We will consider a basket of factors and then, in the coming days, we will formulate the pay claim".

Asked about the pay freeze suggestion, Lee said this would be a decision for the government to make. His committee will meet again on May 27 to validate the data before passing it to Exco.

Meanwhile Lee Fong-chung, chairman of the Hong Kong Senior Government Officers Association, said the figures were in line with his expectations, even though they are below the rate of inflation.

But he said he worries that next year's pay rises will be lower.

Any increases to Civil Service pay will also have to be approved by lawmakers.

Last year's pay rises for civil servants were held up for several months after Legco broke up early for the summer recess following the storming of the council building by protesters on July 1, and also due to filibustering by pan-dems who objected to police officers getting the increases of between 4.75 and 5.26 percent.