Civil servants’ wage rise ready by June

2012-02-09
From: Macau Daily Times

A salary increase for civil servants is likely to come into effect in the first half of this year, the Secretary for Administration and Justice, Florinda Chan, said yesterday.
Chan asked the Committee of Deliberation on the Remuneration of Public Administration Workers to submit the report on salary hike for public workers as soon as possible.
The proposal will be examined and passed on to Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On, the Executive Council and finally to the Legislative Assembly, she added.
She said she was very optimistic that public workers would see a remuneration growth in the first half of this year, but the government had not yet decided if the increase would be effective from January 1, 2012. Any decision will have to wait until the government receive the report.
SAFP held its second meeting on Tuesday and proposed that public workers could have a wage hike of 5.6 or 6.5 percent. The committees opinion is obviously valid as well, Chan said.
However, the secretary stressed that the salary rise could in the end be different from any of the two proposals. The government must analyse different factors, including workers purchasing power, she said.
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.
Chan was speaking at the sidelines of the Civil Servants Training Centres opening ceremony in Centro Commercial Cheng Feng.
The centre has a floor area of 34,000 square feet, including 12 training rooms and computer rooms that can accommodate training courses for 700 people simultaneously.
Chan also mentioned that the government would soon finish the report on political reform.
Speaking at the same occasion, Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau director Joseacute Chu said that the citys civil servants, especially those of high rankings, should improve their management skills and professional capabilities to implement government policies in a more efficient way. He believed the centre would serve this purpose.

Copyright Macau Daily Times