Following is a question by the Hon Michael Tien and a written reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Clement Cheung, in the Legislative Council today (February 8):

Question:

     At present, different pay scales are applicable to the Police Force, the Independent Commission Against Corruption and other disciplined services. On the premise that firemen often carry out duties under urgent and dangerous situations, the staff associations of the Fire Services Department (FSD) have been fighting for years for the reinstatement of FSD as an emergency service, which is better remunerated. It is learnt that following the deaths on duty of two firemen during firefighting in June of last year, more members of the public approve of such a demand. On the other hand, some disciplined services staff members have relayed to me that the current salary structures can no longer reflect the increasingly heavy workload of their jobs and the rising public expectations on their performance in recent years. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the respective numbers of staff members at various ranks in various disciplined services who resigned in each of the past five years; whether it has studied the relationship between the remuneration packages for various disciplined services and the resignation rates of them; if it has studied, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;  

(2) whether it has studied the changes in the job nature and duties of various disciplined services in the past 10 years; if it has, of the details; if not, whether it will consider conducting the relevant studies; and  

(3) given that it has been nine years since the last review of the salary structures of disciplined services was conducted by the authorities, whether the authorities have plans to comprehensively review and improve the salary structures of disciplined services, in the light of the fact that the job nature and duties of disciplined services staff have changed in recent years and in response to the demands of disciplined services staff members; if they do, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?  

Reply:

President,
 
     Individual departments and grades have their own conditions of service and operational needs under the existing Government structure, but there is no distinction between "emergency" services or "non-emergency" services among the disciplined services. 

     The Government has been implementing the Improved Civil Service Pay Adjustment Mechanism since 2007 such that civil service pay is broadly comparable with private sector pay through the conduct of the pay trend survey, Starting Salaries Survey and Pay Level Survey on a regular basis. According to the decision made by the Chief Executive-in-Council, Grade Structure Reviews (GSR) should only be considered in view of significant changes in the job nature, responsibilities; or proven recruitment and retention problems of a grade. The Government handles requests raised by disciplined services grades in a fair and impartial manner in accordance with the above criteria.
 
     Regarding part (1) of the question, in the past five years, an average of around 250 disciplined services staff in the civil service resigned each year, representing about 0.5 per cent of the strength of our disciplined services. About 60 per cent of the resignees left the Government when they were in their probationary period, which reflected that they were still in the exploration stage of their career. Moreover, the average vacancy rate of the disciplined services was about one per cent over the past five years and relevant recruitment exercises had been satisfactory as they often attracted a large number of qualified applicants.

     As for parts (2) and (3) of the question, the Government conducted a comprehensive GSR for the disciplined services in 2008, followed by the implementation of a series of recommendations. The Civil Service Bureau will continue to maintain close communication with the management and staff sides of the departments, and will consider whether GSRs are justified to be conducted under the existing policy framework.

Ends/Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Issued at HKT 15:00

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