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Health staff to get pay rises in $120m package
Staff Writer: Mimi Lau
Nurses and other public health workers are in for an early Christmas.
A total of 4,700 nurses and other medical staff will get a pay rise next month under a HK$120 million package announced by the Hospital Authority yesterday.
The entry salaries of new recruits will be increased by two to three points from October 1. Those hired after April 2000 and whose pay is still below the new entry levels will see their pay brought to the new levels.
For nurses and others whose salaries are already on or above the revised entry point, they will receive one additional pay point, but subject to the maximum of their respective pay scales.
A spokesman for the authority said the revision is similar to that adopted in the civil service. The authority's board will meet to approve the pay rise.
Chief executive Shane Solomon said they have taken into account recent pay reviews for civil servants as well as other factors such as fairness and whether the authority can afford to meet the increases. ``While I'm aware that the arrangement may not satisfy all concerned, I would like to appeal for your understanding that this is the best the Hospital Authority is able to do right now,'' he said.
In a bid to address the high turnover among nurses, Solomon said an extra increment will be given to nurses hired between June 2002 and December 2005 and those who have worked for five years. He said the authority is also developing a new ward workload standard to ease nurses' complaints about heavy workload.
The increases, however, are still not enough to pacify the disgruntled nurses.
Lawmaker Joseph Lee Kwok-lun, who represents the nursing sector, said the package failed to meet the pay structure for public health workers according to their experience. He expressed concern that nurses with four to five years' experience will will be forced to leave for the private sector.
Psychiatric nurse Elaine Wong Yee- ha, working in a Kwai Chung public hospital, criticized the proposals as ``extremely unfair,'' warning it would ``further segregate the unity of nurses.''
The nurse joined the Hospital Authority in 2003 on a starting salary of HK$17,000. After obtaining both her general nurse and psychiatric nurse licenses in the last four years, she now earns HK$20,780 monthly on a pay point of 16.
Under the new package, her salary will go up to HK$21,830.
``It has totally neglected the professional training I undertook in the last two years,'' she said. |
