Commission’s Objection To Higher Public Service Pay

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28154, 18 December 1956, Page 16

Commission’s Objection To Higher Public Service Pay

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, December 17, The tenor of the Public Service Association’s submissions to the Government Service Tribunal seeking increased salaries was that the Public Service was on the verge of collapse, and that unless it adopted a better scale than the banks the final collapse wpuld be swift and total, said Mr Bruce Hope, advocate for the Public Service Commission, presenting the commission’s case before the tribunal today. These gloomy prognostications fortunately were wide of the mark, said Mr Hope. If any part of the Public Service were to be headed for collapse surely this should have happened during the war. Then, in spite of the manpower regulations, the service was seriously depleted of staff (in some cases to 60 per cent, of its pre-war staff) and at the same time called on to carry new and greater burdens in rehabilitation, manpower control, rationing, supply, and other urgent war-time functions, in addition to continuing normal public services. Mr Hope said it was clear that if equal pay were provided now in the Public Service while still not generally adopted for the rest of the community, it would run counter to the accepted principle of fair relativity, which was fundamental to salary fixing in the Public Service. The commission believed that this present equal pay claim, support for which was far from general, should be considered in its proper perspective as part of a national problem of general significance.

It seemed clear that the applicant’s claim for equal pay for equal work was based on the opinion that there was, or should be, a rate for the job, regardless of sex. This concept oversimplified the problem of equal pay. and did not take into account many other real factors which affected the performance of the employee and his or her value to the employer, he said. Mr Hope said the commission’s case would show that recruitment of male juniors had during recent months impro- I materially, and should so continue; total staff, even though not up to full establishment, was effectively

doing the work of the service; goodcalibre junior executives could be increased by a plan that had been offered by the Public Service Commission but opposed by the Public Service Association; efficiency was at a satisfactory level; the Public Service was still in sound health; and the association’s proposed solution would have an effect quite inconsistent with some of the association’s purported aims.

Mr Hope said that the recruiting tide was turning in favour of the Public Service. Figures supplied by the Government Statistician and the Secretary of Labour showed that more males and females aged 15 to 18 were becoming available in increasing numbers, and that the rate would keep up for some time. Other points in Mr Hope’s submissions were: The male cadet recruitment seemed to be improving in both numbers and quality; it was not necessary to advertise for female clerical cadets; there was no complaint from prospective cadets or their parents that starting rates were too low; the starting rates and automatic maximum compared more than favourably with rates outside for comparable work, except in banks and insurance companies; competition by banks appeared to be easing; there were signs that the Public Service would recruit a fair proportion of the extra school leavers; controlling officers thought that the automatic maximum was fair and, in general, there was no complaint from the staff; rates were sufficiently high to attract young men from outside industry at all levels throughout the basic grade; there was no clamour by the women of the service for the same automatic maximum as males; and there were good,grounds for opposing the application of the principle of equal pay.