Balanced proposals: Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong says the Government's proposals can strike a balance between the aspirations of the community and the interests of the civil service.

A two-month consultation has been launched inviting views on the methodology of a pay level survey for the civil service and the application of the survey results.

The Government's consultant recommends a 'broadly-defined job family method' to identify broadly comparable job matches in the civil service and the private sector for pay comparison purposes.

For a comprehensive pay comparison, the pay data collected from the survey should be analysed in terms of the annual base salary (including basic salary and contractually guaranteed bonus) and the annual total cash compensation (annual base salary plus any other cash payment).

New pay scales apply to new recruits

The Government will take account of the results of the survey and other relevant factors in drawing up a new set of civil service pay scales with adjusted dollar values for application to new recruits who join the civil service after a prospective date.

For serving staff, if the survey results find civil service pay exceeds the private sector, it is proposed the pay of all serving officers be frozen until it is caught up by the private sector. But the disparity will be noted and will be taken into account in subsequent annual civil service pay adjustment exercises before the next survey.

Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong said the Government will uphold the guiding principle of civil service pay policy, which is to maintain broad comparability between civil service pay and private sector pay.

"The improved pay adjustment mechanism will provide a coherent framework for periodic reviews of pay levels in the civil service and the private sector," Mr Wong said.

"Our proposals represent a pragmatic approach which not only takes full account of all relevant policy considerations but also strikes a balance between the aspirations of the community and the interests of the civil service."

Survey fieldwork to start

The two-month consultation will end January 7. The Government will consider all views received before deciding the way forward. Its aim is to begin the survey fieldwork under a separate consultancy in the first quarter of 2005 with a view to covering the pay adjustments in the private sector up to April 1.

The Civil Service Bureau will further study whether and, if so, how the existing methodology of the pay trend survey should be improved. It will also consider how best to develop an effective means for implementing both upward and downward pay adjustments.

"Our intention is to complete the whole exercise on the development of an improved civil service pay adjustment mechanism within 2005," Mr Wong said.

Following the exercise's completion, the Government will proceed to examine other broader pay-related initiatives in a step-by-step manner to make our civil service pay system simpler and easier to administer, and build in more flexibility to facilitate matching of jobs, talent and pay.

The initiatives include conducting grade structure reviews, exploring the feasibility of a more flexible salary structure for the civil service and the feasibility of decentralising civil service pay administration.