PRIVILEGED DISCOUNTS

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28413, 21 October 1957, Page 8

PRIVILEGED DISCOUNTS

Claim And Counter Claim

The claim that the association is seeking special privileges as a group is a distortion of the issue,” said Mr T. P. Stevens, chairman of the Canterbury section of the Public Service Association. He was commenting on criticism of the association's claim to have retail discounts.

•'There are many and varied groups in the community obtaining discounts on a grand scale.” he said. The Retailers’ Federation, as probably the largest giver of discounts, is well a vare of this. Mr Stevens said there was an almost universal practice of staff discounts. All his association had sought had been to secure for its members the same discount advantages as other members of the community.

Newspapers carried advertisements every day for staff, offering staff privileges and discounts as an inducement. Mr Stevens said that the information given by Mr C. D. Ogilvie, president of the Canterbury-West-land Retailers’ Association, about negotiations with his organisation and the Public Service Investment Society was welcomed, but apparently Mr Ogilvie was uninformed, as the criticism first offered was on behalf of the Public Service Association and not the investment society. Retailers’ Reply

‘‘Mr Stevens is scratching very shallow ground to justify his claim for discounts for Public Service Association members when he wishes to make such an elaborate point of retailers allowing their staff discounts,” said Mr Ogilvie. “It is surely a universal trend today to grant staff in organisations some privileges and, in fact, those opportunities for privileges are extended far further afield than the matter of staff discounts. “Firms offer staffs subsidised superannuation policies, and it is also not? uncommon to offer them bonus inducements against improved sales. “There are about 600.000 people employed in manufacturing and some 300,000 in the distributive trade. Perhaps Mr Stevens would now feel that he should be able to buy appliances for his members at a price lower than the wholesale price because a certain group already enjoys that privilege.” Mr Ogilvie said: “Let me reiterate that the Retailers’ Federation has agreed that if the Public Service Association wishes to set up its own co-operative, it has no fault to find with it provided it is set up on the same lines as all co-operatives in New Zealand.”