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Following is the transcript of a media session given by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Joseph W P Wong, today (November 26) on the Progress Report on the Development of an improved civil service pay adjustment mechanism:

Secretary: Today we released a progress report on the review of civil service pay adjustment mechanism. As a matter of fact, we appointed the consultant yesterday to help us to identify a feasible and appropriate methodology for conducting the pay level survey.

According to our time table, by the second quarter of next year we will have some ideas on the methodology for the pay level survey, what improvements we should make to the annual pay trend survey and how the results of the pay level survey should be applied to civil servants. On these bases, we will consult widely within the civil service. We will also collate views from different sectors of the community. Our intention is to conduct pay level survey in the last quarter of next year, and complete the whole exercise, including introducing legislation for making upward and downward adjustments to the civil service pay in the first half of 2005.

I would just like to make two additional points. The first point is it is a very important exercise which will have a lot of controversies. It is therefore important that we should allow adequate time for extensive consultation with the civil servants as well as to hear views from different sectors of the community. Therefore, a slight extension of the timetable from the original end of 2004 to the first half of 2005, in my view, is an appropriate way of going about this.

Secondly, because it is a very important public policy in so far as the civil service salaries are concerned, in the process not only will we consult extensively within the civil service, but we will from time to time keep the Legislative Council and members of the public informed of the progress. We will collate views on different issues so that at the end of the day, the government decision will take full account of all views expressed and we hope it will also meet the aspirations of the community at large.

Reporter: ... different interpretation of the Basic Law... Can civil servant salaries be adjusted downwards before the handover...?

Secretary: I mentioned that the application issue is a very complicated issue precisely because we are dealing with different categories of civil servants. Some joined the service before 1997. Some joined afterwards. Some would join perhaps after we have completed the pay level survey. So how do we apply the results of the pay level survey to different categories of civil servants is a matter which we have to consider very carefully. Of course, for civil servants who joined the civil service before 1997, the Basic Law applies to them and therefore what interpretation or what position we should take on the Basic Law is also a factor which we will have to consider. As I said before, all these issues will be carefully examined and we aim to have some proposals in the second quarter of next year.

(Please also refer to the Chinese transcript)

Ends/Wednesday, November 26, 2003

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