"TOO HIGH."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 291, 8 December 1937, Page 20

"TOO HIGH."

; SALARY OF CLERK.

HARBOUR BOARD DECISION. PROTEST AT RETIREMENT. "Personally I regard cadetship as a form of apprenticeship, and I think perhaps it is a mistake to put cadets on the permanent staff, as to do so tends to give a sense of permanent employment which is not warranted, and which is not always good for the individual," declared the chairman of the Auckland Harbour Board, the Hon. T. Bloodworth, M.L.C., when he replied at yesterday's meeting of the board to emphatic protests voiced by members at a proposal to retire a junior clerk whose salary had been increased from £150 to £273 a year by the operation of a new award.

The board-in-committee recommended that notice of termination of employment should be given to the employee concerned, to expire on January 31 next, and that, in view of the special circumstances of the case, four weeks' leave of absence on full pay, including accrued annual leave, should be granted. It was stated that the clerk's range of duties did not justify payment of the rates provided under the new award. Si* Years' Service. When the recommendation was put to the meeting yesterday, Mr. J. Sayegh rose to protest against" the retiring of a man because his wages had to be increased under a new award. After the employee had given about six years' service the board had evidently come to the conclusion that he was only a messenger boy. He moved as an amendment that the clerk's services should be retained, and that a position should be found for him in some other department. Mr. W. B. Darlow said there was a principle involved. The employee concerned had been described by the head of his department as a very worthy member of the staff. A fortnight ago, he reminded members, the board had voted a £10,000 a year increase to the staff.

Giving further support to the protest, Mr. T. A. Bishop gave notice of an alternative amendment that consideration of the mattetr should be deferred for 12 months. The young man involved, he said, was one of the victims of recent Labour legislation. Mr. H. R. Mackenzie doubted whether the three protesting members were acquainted with the full facts of the case. Chairman Explains. The chairman said it was not right to say that the young man had been merely a messenger boy. This was a circumstance which arose because, under the award and recent industrial legislation, salaries for juniors were fixed in accordance with age. In the present instance the increase which the young man received brought his salary above that of the man who was next above him and who was his senior in length of service, though not in age. It was felt that, for the work he did, the salary fixed for men of his ago was too high.

"If in this and similar circumstances men are to be kept on at the rate provided, it will follow that, unless vacancies occur in the higher branches of the board's service or the board's business extends and juniors are promoted, no cadets can be taken on, and in a few years all the clerks will be at an age of not less than 27, when the salary is fixed at £6 5/ a week," added Mr. Bloodworth.

Both amendments were lost and the recommendation was carried.