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The Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, said today (Monday) that the Government, employers and employees must work hand-in-hand to overcome our difficulties during this period of economic adjustment.

Mr Tung said this during meetings with labour representatives to exchange views with them on the preparation for the Policy Address.

In analysing the present economic situation, Mr Tung said: "All of us know that the period of economic adjustment we are going through is painful but necessary. The market adjustments will help enhance our competitiveness. This is conducive to our economic recovery."

Mr Tung emphasised that he hoped that in adjusting staff wages, companies in the private sector would fully take into account the difficulties their staff might be facing.

"The employers and employees are in the same boat and must help each other to tide over this difficult period," he stressed.

Mr Tung expected that the economic downturn would not reverse in the short term. He called on the community to face the reality, take the situation as a whole into consideration and rationally resolve labour problems.

"All parties must consider first the interest of the community as a whole before taking any action. They must make sure that their action will not affect the daily living of the general public and business operation in the territory," he said.

"The Government will continue its efforts to improve the investment environment. We will encourage investments, which will in turn create job opportunities," he said.

Mr Tung said that the Labour Department stood ready to provide conciliation service to help settle labour disputes. We hoped both employers and employees would seek a solution peacefully and would not resort to drastic measures, he said.

"The Government is very concerned about the labour dispute involving Hongkong Telecom. On this, the Labour Department has expressed deep concern to the company's management and urged them to continue the dialogue with staff to see whether there are other alternatives. We appeal to employees to remain calm and continue to discuss with management on ways of resolving their differences," he said.

On civil service pay adjustments, Mr Tung said: "As a responsible employer, the Government will not abruptly change the established pay adjustment mechanism. We will also make sure that pay adjustments for the civil service are justified and reasonable.

"Under the present Pay Trend Survey mechanism for civil service pay adjustment, any consequence on the current pay adjustment in the private sector due to the economic downturn will have a direct bearing on the result of the Pay Trend Survey.

"Our salary adjustment next year will fully reflect the survey's indicators. We will also take into consideration such factors as any growth or slowdown of the economy, Government's expenditure and staff morale," he said.

End/Monday, September 21, 1998

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