Civil servants can expect modest pay increases this year, roughly in accord with salary increases in the private sector over the past 12 months.

The government's latest pay trend survey indicates that junior staff in private sector companies had a 0.9 percent salary increase; mid-level workers, 1.29 percent; and senior staff, 2.2 percent.

The results, presented in the form of "gross pay trend indicators", show the rates of private sector pay adjustments in the three defined salary bands from April 2, 2009 to April 1, 2010. The Pay Trend Survey Committee (PTSC) will meet next Thursday to validate the gross pay trend indicators. Then the formula will be applied to determine pay increases for civil servants.

Barry Cheung Chun Yuen, Alternate chairman of the PTSC, said the survey results accurately reflect the pay trend in the private sector. The survey examined figures from 106 companies with nearly 180,000 employees.

"From the lesson of last year, we input more transparent factors, so there are fewer conflicts during the process," he added.

"The net pay trend indicators are one of the factors that the Chief Executive-in-Council will consider in deciding whether and (if so) how to adjust civil service pay for 2010-11. Other factors that will be considered are the state of the economy, the government's fiscal position, changes in the cost of living, the staff sides' pay claims, and civil service morale," the Civil Service Bureau spokesman said.

Based on the net pay trend indicators, the lower salary band will enjoy a 0.16 percent increase, middle salary band 0.56 percent and the upper salary band 1.6 percent.

In response, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Senior Government Officers Association Philip Kwok Chi-tak expects the increase rates cannot make up the 5.38 percent pay-cut for senior staff. "We are disappointed about the increases," Kwok told reporters.

"Government counsels are consistently underpaid and should be on par with medium and large law firms and the proposed increases do not come close to making up for the 5.38 percent cut last year," said a Government Counsel working for the Department of Justice (DOJ).

She said contracts were also inconsistent since the government eliminated gratuities promised to DOJ counsels at the end of a three-year agreement period that followed their three-year probationary period.

"Taken with lower starting salaries for starting staff, the Department is going to have trouble recruiting and retaining talent," she added.

According to a researcher at headhunting firm Heidrick Struggles, improving market sentiment was leading major companies on a hiring blitz, offering significantly larger bonuses and salary increases of more than 2 percent at least, to lure talent and make up for average cuts of 10 percent last year.

Although civil servants and union heads were near unanimous in announcing the less than expected pay rises, one civil servant said, "For some people working in the private sector, they could only get 60 percent or half of the salary offered by the government. Civil servants should be more than happy for not having a pay cut this year."

China Daily

(HK Edition 05/21/2010 page1)