A private pay trend survey that the government references in deciding civil service pay rises points the way to increases of up to 4.12 percent.

The findings – drawn up from the pay trend survey of about 155,000 workers from 104 private companies – suggested pay rises of 4.12 percent for seniors, 2.64 percent for middle-ranking staff and 1.17 percent for juniors.

In announcing the survey results on Thursday, Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung stressed that the figures are only one of the six major factors that would be taken into account when the Executive Council makes the final pay decision for more than 170,000 civil servants in the city.

The other factors are the state of the economy, cost-of-living changes, staff pay claims, civil service morale and the government's fiscal position.

“As in past years, after having the net pay trend indicators, we will do an analysis of the other five factors that the Executive Council has to take into account, and then we will present our analysis to the Executive Council to enable the council to make an informed and a balanced and most appropriate decision,” Yeung said.

“As for social sentiment, I think public reaction, public acceptance of the proposed policy decision is a factor that the Executive Council will take into consideration in making every decision, not only this one. So this is a given.”

Yeung went on to say that she will meet civil service representatives next week to gauge their views.

She also announced that a revised appraisal system would be implemented starting October 1 to better evaluate the performance of civil servants.

Yeung said around five to 10 percent of all staff would be deemed underperformers and not be granted a salary increment.

“We have considered similar practices in other jurisdictions as well as considered the actual situation in government departments in coming up [with] this decision and coming up to deciding on this percentage."

The move will allow department heads to establish effective management teams, Yeung added.



Edited by Edmond Fong