LOW SALARIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 146, 22 June 1945, Page 6

LOW SALARIES

IN PUBLIC SERVICE

EMPLOYEES AWAIT REDRESS

P.A. WELLINGTON, this day Evidence given before the public service consultative committee by a number of groups of workers during the past few days, was commented on to-day by Mr. J. Turn bull, general secretary of the Public Service Association and a member of the consultative committee.

"Most of us," said Mr. Turnbull "are cherishing dreams, the fulfil' ment of which must await the final day of victory. A great many public servants for some years past have been working in overcrowded and unsuitable premises. For example evidence was given recently by six groups of employees k from the Government printing office, Wellington. The desire to be provided with the new building which has been promised them for so long ran like a thread through all their evidence" Mr. Turnbull said that the major part of the present building dated back to 1888, and had been regarded as entirely unsuitable for at least 20 years.

An essential difference betwen the methods of fixing wage rates outside and inside Government service had also been brought into prominence bv the evidence presented on behalf of the Goyerment printing bfflce staff he continued. The wages of printers employed by private enterprise were governed by awards which fixed the minimum rates payable to craftsmen and other workers, while the Government fixed the maximum for State employees.

The Arbitration Court had recently approved an award, which, while taking full advantage of the recent "ceiling" increases, allowed the fixing of rates which were considerably below those actually being paid to a number of the workers affected. The consultative committee, in its task of formulating new scales for the entire public service, would no doubt come across other instances where the mere adoption of the recent award rates would still leave State salaries well behind those paid to comparable workers in private industry, concluded Mr. Turnbull and it would be interesting to see how the problem was to be solved