EMPLOYMENT OF ENGINEERS

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26726, 9 May 1952, Page 10

EMPLOYMENT OF ENGINEERS

HIGHER SALARIES SUGGESTED (New Zeaiana Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 8. Ways of keeping professional engileers in the railways service were suggested to the Royal Commission on Sailways to-day by the New Zealand Professional Engineers’ Association. To ensure that the railways received ts share of the professional men it required it was necessary to offer the highest salaries and conditions of appointment possible, the association submitted. The present method of assessing salaries above £1260 a year of professional engineers in the department was not satisfactory, it said, and it urged that the salary scale of professional engineers be increased immediately as a first step towards retaining staff and to attract engineering recruits to the department. The association submitted figures to sho'." that in relation to the basic wage, engineers in New Zealand did not enjoy the same margin as those in Victoria, Australia. In Australia the chief civil engineer of railways received £2259 a year against a basicwage of £469. In New Zealand the position was worth £1835, against a basic wage of £458. The association said that the salary of the railway engineer had not kept pace with those for other engineering positions of comparable responsibility.