Dear Colleagues,

2003 Civil Service Pay Adjustment

Further to my letter of 11 December, I am writing to update you on the latest developments of the 2003 civil service pay adjustment exercise.

In recent weeks, the management has been in close consultation with the staff sides of the central consultative councils as well as representatives of the four service-wide staff unions on how best to take forward next year's pay adjustment exercise.  At my latest meeting with staff representatives held on 23 December, I proposed the following way forward :

(a) the working group which has been set up earlier this year to consider the handling of the 2003 civil service pay adjustment and related issues should be re-convened to provide a channel for the management and staff representatives to discuss, on the basis of the existing mechanism, a new and improved mechanism for civil service pay adjustment;

(b) pending the completion of a review of the methodology of the annual pay trend survey, we should not conduct a pay trend survey for 2002-03;

(c) a pay level survey should be conducted to compare the pay levels in the civil service with those in the private sector.  Detailed arrangements such as the timing of the pay level survey, the completion deadline, the survey methodology, etc. would be subject to further discussion in the working group; and

(d) consideration should be given to the need for the new pay adjustment mechanism to be provided in law.

In view of the urgency to resolve the matter, I advised the staff representatives that I would aim to report on the progress of deliberations in the working group on the handling of the 2003 civil service pay adjustment and the associated action timetable to the Chief Executive by the end of January 2003.

The working group will meet again in early January 2003 to consider the proposed way forward.  In parallel, I shall reach out to the rest of the civil service to listen to your views.  Thus, in addition to my regular departmental visits and my ongoing programme to meet with representatives of staff unions, I have organised three forums in early January 2003 to gauge feedback from the staff side representatives of the departmental consultative committees on this matter.  If you have any views and comments on next year's pay adjustment exercise, please feel free to let me know directly or through your representatives.  I assure you that the Government will have due regard to the interests of both the civil service as well as the community at large before taking a final decision.

I take this opportunity to wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.

Yours sincerely,

(Joseph W P Wong)
Secretary for the Civil Service