Civil staff wages to rise 5.6 or 6.5 pct

2012-02-08
From: Macau Daily Times
The salaries of civil servants could increase 5.6 percent or 6.5 percent this year, according to two proposals a recently created committee will soon send to the secretary for Administration and Justice, Florinda Chan.
At the end of the second meeting of the Committee of Deliberation on the Remuneration of Public Administration Workers, held yesterday, the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP) director said the members had agreed on two alternatives.
The first would be to increase the wage index by MOP 3.5 to MOP 65.5 while the second would push the index up by MOP 4. These two proposals would represent a salary growth of 5.6 percent or 6.5 percent.
Joseacute Chu emphasised that this increase is at a similar level to inflation, one of four factors the committee says must be considered in determining the wage raise. In 2011 average inflation was at 5.8 percent but in December yearly inflation hit 6.8 percent.
We took into account the DSEC [Statistics and Census Services] data on inflation for the years of 2010 and 2011, but also wages and its increase in the private market and the governments financial situation, he explained.
However the first alternative is lower than the proposal made by the Macau Civil Servants Association. The organisation, which is represented in the committee by its president, Joseacute Pereira Coutinho, had called for the raise to reach seven percent.

Govt decision

Asked if all committee members agreed with the decision, Chu said members have reached a consensus in sending these two proposals to the government as soon as possible.
Last week economist Albano Martins said the government should increase wages by at least 10 percent in order to give more purchasing power to public workers. A raise of 4.9 percent the initial Administration proposal only brings back the salary level from the beginning of 2000.
Joseacute Chu refused to comment Martins statement or to draw a forecast on when a wage increase could be effectively introduced. We will send these proposals as soon as possible. But the final decision belongs to the secretary [Florinda Chan] and the government, he stressed.
After the first committee meeting, held last week, Chu had said there had been no discussions over the possibility of having the wage raise effective from January 1, 2012.
The government is set to spend anything between MOP 700 million and MOP 800 million with the increase in the salaries of public servants, Chu said.
Yesterday the committee also discussed the need to create a mechanism to regularly review civil servants wages. So far we have no scientific mechanism to assess our decisions, the SAFP vice-director Kou Peng Kuan said.
In the future we have to launch more studies and research on this issue, Kou stressed. In order to put together a long-term mechanism, we have to carry out a more detailed analysis, for instance on different job positions and competences, said Joseacute Chu.

Copyright Macau Daily Times