【明報專訊】WE understand the government has decided that Chief Executive Donald Tsang and his 33 politically appointed officials should take a 5.38% pay cut to show they would stand by the public in difficult times. However, it is unclear whether the government will cut the 160,000 civil servants' pay according to the Pay Trend Survey. Last week four civil service union representatives refused to validate the 2009 Pay Trend Survey findings. It was subsequently rumoured that the government intended to cut the pay of those in the upper salary band. As for those in the middle and lower salary bands, it would propose that their pay should be frozen and that the differences should not be deducted when civil service pay rises again. Dispute has ensued. This is not the first time civil servants have been faced with pay cuts. It is clear what the public expects the civil service pay adjustment system to do - to keep civil service pay in line with market wages. The government should adhere to it. It should be such that civil service pay may go either way. The government and civil servants must not think that civil service pay should only go up and never come down. If the government decides against cutting civil service pay on technical or legal grounds, the public will regard them as mere pretexts. It could hardly justify that decision to private-sector employees (who live in constant fear of being laid off or seeing their pay cut). Such a move would only increase public resentment.