Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ11: Adjustment of Hospital Authority staff remuneration
Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(February 18):
Question:
The Annual Report 2007-2008 of the Hospital Authority (HA) reveals that the
remuneration of the five highest paid executives in that year increased by 3.6%
to 7.6% as compared to that of last year, whereas it was reported that the pay
rise for frontline nursing staff was 0.3% only. There have been comments that
such situation reflects the failure of HA's internal monitoring mechanism for
the adjustment of staff remuneration by the management, and thus leading to a
situation which rewards the upper-ranked staff generously but gives the
lower-ranked staff a niggardly pay. In this connection, will the Executive
Authorities inform this Council whether:
(a) they know the criteria adopted by HA for determining the remuneration
adjustments for its management and frontline staff;
(b) they had regularly reviewed in the past three years HA's monitoring
mechanism for the adjustment of staff remuneration by the management; if so, of
the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) they will consider subjecting the adjustment of remuneration of those HA
staff who are equivalent in rank to directorate civil servants to the
supervision of the Legislative Council; if they will not, of the reasons for
that?
Reply:
President,
(a) The remuneration of the senior executives in the Hospital Authority (HA),
including the Chief Executive, Cluster Chief Executives, Hospital Chief
Executives, and Heads of functional divisions in the HA Head Office, is
determined in accordance with the relevant policies formulated by the HA Board.
In general, such factors as internal relativities, pay level in the market and
the affordability of the organisation as well as the Annual Pay Adjustment and
the policy on salary increment applicable to the general staff of HA are taken
into account in determining the remuneration and annual remuneration adjustment
of the senior executives. Besides, the remuneration of these senior executives
would also be adjusted under certain circumstances in accordance with
established mechanism having regard to individual employment conditions and
changes of duties.
Other staff of HA are paid on the established pay scales of HA. At present, HA
makes reference to the findings of the annual Pay Trend Survey of the civil
service in determining the pay adjustments for its staff paid on the established
pay scales. Besides, under HA's salary increment policy, staff will be awarded
salary increment subject to performance. However, the above Annual Pay
Adjustment mechanism is not applicable to supporting staff at the ranks of
General Services Assistant and Technical Services Assistant, who are mostly on
contract terms. HA conducts annual review on the pay adjustment of these two
ranks with reference to the general market trend.
(b) The annual pay adjustment rate of HA staff is subject to approval by the HA
Board. As for the remuneration of individual senior executives, the adjustment
is subject to approval by the HA Board through its Executive Committee.
(c) HA is an independent statutory body. According to Schedule 3 of the Hospital
Authority Ordinance (Cap. 113), HA is conferred with power to determine the most
appropriate terms and conditions of employment of its employees. At present,
such arrangements have been working well and it is not necessary to make changes
to these arrangements.
Ends/Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Issued at HKT 13:00
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