Public workers’ wages raise still uncertain

2011-11 -23
From: Macau Daily Times

Secretary for Administration and Justice, Florinda Chan, promised yesterday that the mechanism for automatically adjusting civil servants wages will be ready in the first half of 2012

It is yet not certain whether public workers will have their wages raised next year.
During a debate with lawmakers yesterday, the secretary for Administration and Justice Florinda Chan admitted she was not sure if it would be possible to raise wages for civil servants.
However, she left the legislature with a promise: the mechanism for automatically adjusting civil servants wages will be ready in the first half of next year.
Legislators yesterday said they were left with doubts following the Chief Executives policy speech last week and it was therefore not to anyones surprise that most lawmakers addressed the secretary with recurring enquiries about salary adjustments for civil servants.
Mak Soi Kun was the first one to call for a salary adjustment in order to help civil servants to shoulder the inflation rate and the appreciation of the yuan. The businessman also asked the secretary to increase workers perks and to launch more subsidies for the police force.
The secretary stressed that since the handover, public worker payments have been updated four times, while subsidies and contracts have also been amended. She said that next year, the government will first address residents calls for the implementation of a council to oversee civil service pay, after which they will be able to give a clear answer to lawmakers calls for change.
People criticised the lack of a systematic mechanism to keep the morale of public workers, but also uplift their spirit and commitment. The government has already developed a great deal of work in this area, Chan said.
I cannot promise that salaries will be updated. In the first half of next year, I hope to get a clear result from the study on the creation of this new mechanism. We will establish the mechanism as soon as possible and we are taking Singapores example as reference, she added.
The government official also recalled that the Chief Executive urged the business community to update their employee payments. But lawmakers responded that private companies are waiting for the Administration to set the example.
Last year, in the 2011 Policy Address, Chui announced that Administration workers would get a pay raise of 5.08 percent, meaning the wage index increased from MOP 59 to 62.
However, this year, Public Administration workers associations claimed that Macaus consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, increased by over six percent year-on-year, and salaries should be increased over the inflation rate.
Lawmaker and president of the main local public workers association Joseacute Pereira Coutinho met with the Chief Executive and suggested a raise of seven percent. Against all odds, Chui did not announce the increase last week and instead took associations advice to create the so-called civil service pay council.
Yesterday, Pereira Coutinho said he was disappointed. Thats not what the Chief Executive said [when we met].
Most private companies are depending on your work to update their workers salaries. Why not follow the opinions that were given by local associations? he questioned.
Dominic Sio Chi Wai argued that to increase the civil servants wages is a way to keep them in their positions, instead of moving into the private sector. He warned that because of the low salaries some workers, especially from the police force, are leaving the civil service.

Unfair contracts

In addition, the Chief Executive-appointed lawmaker Tommy Lau Veng Seng asked about the governments plans to axe the different kind of employment contracts in the Public Administration. Lau slammed this practice saying it is unfair, as it grants different salaries and rights to workers who are often in the same position.
Chan recalled that a new job system for public workers is being considered by the government. We hope to collect opinions on the new system from society and civil servants. We will also make a comparative study on this, she said.
The secretary pointed out that the government has been standardising the different job contracts step-by-step. For instance, some workers under different contracts are entitled to take part in the social security system.
However, there is no timetable for the new system to be submitted for lawmakers approval. Pereira Coutinho criticised the secretary for ignoring the situation of some workers who have been exploited for more than 10 years.
Representative of the Macau Federation of Trade Unions, Kwan Tsui Hang, also said that it is regrettable that the government signs term contracts with civil servants. She recalled that the labour law spells out specific conditions for these kind of contracts.

Copyright Macau Daily Times