The Chief Executive-in-Council (CE-in-Council) decided at today’s meeting that the pay for civil servants in the upper, middle and lower salary bands and the directorate for 2021-22 would be frozen with retrospective effect from 1 April 2021.
In arriving at this decision, the CE-in-Council has, as in past years, considered all the relevant factors under the civil service pay adjustment mechanism. There are views in the community that a pay freeze amid the release of the negative net pay trend indicators (PTIs) this year is a departure from the mechanism and amounts to preferential treatment to civil servants. Some even consider that civil servants should have a pay cut so as to tide over difficult times with the public. I must stress that the net PTIs are one of the six relevant factors considered, but have never been the sole one. Certainly, the past two years have been unusual and unrelenting. Civil servants are part of the community. They deserve to share the fruits of economic growth when the economy is doing well, and are obliged to ride out difficulties with the whole community during economic downturn. This has always been the principle we have upheld in handling civil service pay adjustments. In fact, the CE-in-Council’s decision to freeze civil service pay last year, despite net PTIs and changes in the cost of living were both in the positive, clearly showed that other factors under the adjustment mechanism, including the state of economy at the time, were duly taken into consideration. This was also a demonstrable display of solidarity with the public through difficult times on the part of the civil service.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has wreaked havoc to many sectors in Hong Kong. However, our economy is showing signs of recovery. Forecasts suggest that our economy will continue to recover and labour market conditions will improve if the local epidemic situation remains well contained. That said, the epidemic still poses much uncertainties. After thorough consideration and balancing all relevant factors, such as the state of Hong Kong’s economy and fiscal position, the pay claims of the staff side and civil service morale etc., a pay freeze this year is the most appropriate decision. This decision maintains the objectivity of the pay adjustment mechanism while taking into account the actual economic conditions in Hong Kong. Our economic recovery is underpinned by the epidemic being under control, and civil servants have made tremendous effort and contributed immensely on this front in the past year. I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to every civil servant who was committed to the fight against the virus and remained dedicated to their duties in the past year.
The only and the most effective way to reinvigorate Hong Kong is to build herd immunity through vaccination. In the coming year, I hope that civil servants, as an indispensable part of the anti-epidemic efforts, will continue to demonstrate your commitment by taking the initiative to get vaccinated, and lead the community in surmounting tough times and the epidemic. In order to encourage colleagues to get vaccinated as soon as possible, we have earlier introduced the “vaccination leave” arrangement to allow sufficient time for colleagues to recuperate after getting vaccinated. The arrangement is welcomed by colleagues and has inspired many employers to follow and introduce similar measures.
Furthermore, vaccination is also a major measure for the Government to protect frontline colleagues. Since 31 May, a vaccination in lieu of regular testing (VRT) approach has been adopted for around 55 000 frontline government employees who are regularly involved in enforcement, inspection and investigation duties and have frequent and close contact with members of the public, or are involved in high risk duties. The approach aims to safeguard the health of our frontline colleagues and the people they serve, and to ensure that the staff concerned will not be the source of new clusters of infection in carrying out their duties. With vigorous implementation of measures by bureaux/departments to encourage and facilitate their staff to receive vaccination, I am confident that more colleagues will show active support and get vaccinated.
While the local epidemic situation has been easing off, cases involving mutant strains with higher transmissibility have emerged again in the community recently. The stronger the foe, the sturdier the defense must be. In this connection, the Civil Service Bureau is reviewing the implementation of the VRT approach, and will extend the arrangement to cover more frontline government employees, such as those responsible for maintaining essential public services and have direct contact with members of the public, so that services provided by the Government will neither become a part of the transmission chain nor be suspended because of infections contracted by staff. We will announce the details in due course.
The vaccination programme is on the critical path from now until the end of August. We must significantly raise the vaccination rate, so that the society can return to normality as early as possible. Once again, I call upon all of you to get vaccinated as soon as possible and show solidarity with the community by supporting the “Early Vaccination for All” campaign. Thank you for your support!