TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES IN STATE DEPARTMENTS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22705, 9 May 1939, Page 13

TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES IN STATE DEPARTMENTS

cn THE EDITOR Or THE PRESS Sir—With reference to your article in Friday’s issue about wages and conditions in State departments, I was astounded, as an employer who has been subjected to inspection of wages books by the Labour Department, to find that the Government itself was not paying proper wages to its own employees. Since the article appeared I have made a few inquiries and I find to my astonishment that overtime pay is actually below the ordinary rates of pay. . Tbe_.Government has made • a.- case for high wages in industry since it came into office. It is all the more remarkable that the departments so closely associated with wage conditions should be so inconsistent. In view of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Labour having said from time to time that all members of the community should have a higher standard of living than hitherto possible under other governments, why don’t they be consistent to their own employees? If I were to say to an-.inspector for factories, “You can’t see my wage book,” I would soon get rough treatment. Is it possible that this dictatorial Government is being defied by some officials who- are not in accord with the Government’s policy and are endeavouring to use their position to discredit the Government? If proper wages are paid to Government employees it means a benefit to traders. Yours, etc.,