Public Service Submissions For Higher Scale Of Pay

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28157, 21 December 1956, Page 17

Public Service Submissions For Higher Scale Of Pay

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, December 20. For venturing to say virtually the same things as the Public Service Commission on the losses from the service of officers between the ages of 17 and 25 and the likely effect on efficiency of low recruitment and shortage of career officers, the Public Service Association was accused of disruptive propaganda, said Mr J. Turnbull, general secretary of the association, today. Mr Turnbull was making his closing submissions before the Public Service Tribunal on the association’s application for improved scales of pay for the clerical division of the service. The tribunal reserved its decision. One of the commission’s statements quoted by Mr Turnbull said the likelihood that the shortage of qualified career officers would have an unfavourable effect on the efficient working of the service scarcely needed to be pointed out. “The tribunal has a responsibility to take account of the efficiency of the service, and I have a duty to make submissions on this matter, and to make them honestly.” said Mr Turnbull. “All is not well, and the governing body of the Institute of Public Administration seriously debated this year the desirability of asking the Government to set up a Royal Commission into the state of the service. “It has been stressed that I did not produce evidence of actual inefficiency. Was it necessary that I should do so? Is it suggested that the tribunal is unable to appreciate that there are certain conditions which are essential to efficiency, and that, if these conditions are absent, efficiency cannot be maintained?

“Present. Scales Inadequate” “It has been clearly shown that the present scales are inadequate to maintain the efficiency of the service. A closely comparable industry which has had to face exactly the same problems has been able to overcome them, and to recruit and retain the staff required to meet further needs,” continued Mr Turnbull. “It is perfectly natural to conclude that similar scales would do the same for dur service, although the grievous losses already suffered will undoubtedly affect efficiency for years. “The nearest comparable employers of clerical workers, the banks and insurance companies, increased their male juvenile engagements very considerably from 1951 to 1955 (the banks by over 50 per cent.), while Government administration suffered a reduction of about 20 per cent. Why was it that the banks did not suffer from this increased competition, while the service did? The answer is purely and simply in the better salary scale.”

The Government administration had fewer male juveniles than it had five years ago. while the whole of industry had more, and the banks and insurance companies had increased their numbers very, very considerably, said Mr Turnbull. Mr Turnbull produced four recruiting pamphlets issued by banks. One had a salary scale of £975 at 33 or after 17 years service, while others had a comparable scale of £950. Equal Pay Principle

“The commission had resurrected every possible argument against the principle of equal pay, but in my submissions this principle is not in issue. It has been accepted by the commission and by the Government; It is inherent in the Public Service Act, and it is inherent in the Government Service Tribunal Act which lays down a number of criteria which the tribunal is to take account of, but makes no mention of the race, colour, or sex of employees. “What is in issue is whether the principle is to be applied to this particular occupational class of women in the Public Service, and here the guiding principle was laid down by agreement between the commission and the association in 1945: ‘That the principle of equal pay for equal work should for the time being ... be applied only to certain occupational classes where the job-performance of women is plainly equal to that of men. . . .’

“The commission has made a great deal of the fact that many awards in New Zealand provide differential rates but it has not attempted to show that, in any single instance the job-perform-ance of women in these categories is equal to that of men,” said Mr Turnbull.