Remuneration and consultation mechanisms for Police Pay

The Superintendents Association, as part of the Police Force Council Staff Side (PFCSS), provides a channel of communication on remuneration and staff concerns with the Standing Committee on Disciplined Services Salaries and Conditions of Service (“SCDS”), Police Force Management and Civil Service Bureau through various meetings of the SCDS, Consultative Group on Civil Service Salaries and the Police Force Council.

Police pay may be adjusted through the annual Pay Trend Survey (PTS) completed each May, the Civil Service Starting Salary Survey (SSS) completed every three years and the Pay Level Survey (PLS) and subsequent application mechanism to pay relativities to the disciplined services, every six years ( through a GSR in 2008 and implemented in 2010). The next SSS and PLS are expected in 2012.

2011 Civil Service Pay Adjustment

The methodology for the 2011 Pay Trend Survey , which collects data on pay trends in over 100 private sector companies , was endorsed by the Pay Trend Survey Committee in September 2010 and a report is to be submitted to the Standing Commission on Civil Service Salaries with the survey commissioned in January 2011. The 2011 Pay Trend Survey results based on year on year changes in private sector pay will be available in May 2011. CE in Council will then consider further adjustment to Civil Service Pay.

2009 Civil Service Pay Adjustment

For the Civil Service as a whole , the CE in Council submitted legislation to LegCo to implement a -5.38% pay cut to the Upper Band of the Civil Service ( police officers on $50,700 and above), whilst implementing a pay freeze for Lower and Middle band staff. The pay cut is implemented from 1st January 2010.

Grade Structure Review (2008-2010)

In 2008 in a Grade Structure review (GSR) on the Police , the first such review since 1988 ( Rennie Committee) the SPA and other Police associations in the Police Force Council Staff Side submitted their recommendations on ways to resolve the deficiencies relating to the career structure and incremental scales of the Police Pay Scale (PPS). On 27th November 2008 the SCDS submitted the GSR report to the Administration. The Police Force Council has in February 2009 submitted its reaction and comments on this review in a paper GSR Paper 2/2009 (revised). The Staff Side has outlined areas of the GSR report that can be agreed, things that need to be adjusted and areas that were simply not covered in the Report.

CE in Council has endorsed the recommendations made by SCDS in the GSR report with some adjustment to take account of some of the staff side views. The resulting package of recommendations submitted to LeGCo was a step in the right direction. Pay related recommendations were approved by the Finance Committee of LeGCo on 4th December 2009. The upward adjustment to police payscales , backdated to 1st April 2009, can now be implemeted and this provides some improvement to the police career structure. ( adjustment and backpay being paid in salaries in January 2010)

The Staff Side considers that the outcome of the GSR and the decision by CE in Council does not provide a holistic solution to the concerns of staff. The GSR recommendations that have now been implemented were more a product of the economic times in 2009 and there are a number of issues that need to be followed up through the existing channels of the SCDS and Police Force Council.