Civil servants may get a salary increase as early as next year, Secretary for Civil Service Denise Yue said yesterday.

The announcement follows a series of pay cuts and freezes over the past five years, and may cheer the civil servants in the run-up to the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the reunification next year.

Addressing a Legislative Council panel meeting yesterday, Yue said the consultant would complete the pay level survey by the end of the first quarter of 2007.

The data obtained from the survey would be analyzed to find out if there was a big gap between private and public sector salaries and as to how the data will apply to civil service pay.

"When the data is collected, we will consider if civil service salaries need adjustment and how they will be adjusted if the answer is yes," she told the meeting.

If the pay hike is implemented, as many as 160,000 civil servants would be benifitted.

Even though civil service salaries are found to be higher than similar jobs in the private sector, civil service pay will not necessarily be deducted.

"Taking into consideration the special characteristics of the civil service as a permanent, corruption-free and stable team, we will not hundred per cent follow the market wages." she said. "Even though civil service pay may be adjusted, the Chief Executive has pledged that they will not be lower than the level as on July 1, 1997."

When asked by unionist legislator Lee Cheuk-yan if civil servants could expect pay rises in 2007 or 2008, she replied: "I will not rule out such possibility."

After the meeting, she told the press that a pay trend survey could be done to determine the pay adjustment levels.

Although pay trend surveys are generally done between March and the beginning of the following year, she would discuss with the staff consultative committee with a view to changing the date of the pay trend survey.

Leung Chau-ting, president of Hong Kong Federation of Civil Service Unions, was optimistic about the news and expressed hope for resumption of pay increases as soon as possible after July 2007.

However, he worried that the outcome of the pay level survey would be that civil service wages are much higher than market wages and therefore pay rises might not be given.

"For this, existing civil servants will not necessarily enjoy pay rises," he said. "But new entrants and civil servants on contract terms will get greater protection and be paid according to the new pay scale."

(HK Edition 11/21/2006 page2)