UNIVERSITY SALARIES

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27961, 7 May 1956, Page 17

UNIVERSITY SALARIES

COMMENT ON RECENT INCREASES “ PLEASED DECISION HAS BEEN REACHED ” “We are pleased that a decision on a neiv salary scale for university staffs has at last been reached,” says a statement released by the national executive committee of the Association of University Teachers of New Zealand. “Detailed analysis of the new scale is now being made by branches of the association, and although final comment must be deferred till this review is completed, there can be no doubt that the increases will be welcomed. It appears, however, that the claims

of the association for some retrospective payment for the period before April 1, 1956, have not been met. although the official announcement makes it clear that the fact that university teachers had not received certain increases paid to state employees generally from October, 1954, has been taken into account in arriving at the figures finally approved. “If the Government had taken action on the university’s claim when it was submitted last June, any new scale agreed on would have become effective in 1955,” the statement says. “Since action was deferred to allow for a review of public service salaries, university teachers have been pressing their claim to receive, as an interim measure, the increase granted to public servants in 1954. Until it can be seen just what difference these facts have made to the final figures, our members may well feel that the delay has cost them a year’s increase of salary. “The association hopes that it might be possible to pefsuade the Government to review in the near future the procedure for fixing university salaries. Proposals for further salary increases for university teachers have already been made at the University of Sydney, and similar proposals are being formulated in Britain. We believe that the Government should be kept informed of those developments. The University of New Zealand must not be allowed to fall behind again,” the statement says.