STATE SALARY FIXING Commission Recommends Wider Co-ordination

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31771, 30 August 1968, Page 20

STATE SALARY FIXING Commission Recommends Wider Co-ordination

Expansion of the State Services Co-ordinating Committee to include the defence, hospital, and education services is recommended in the report of the Royal Commission on Salary and Wage Fixing Procedures in the New Zealand State Services.

The Royal Commission saw the role of this committee as the principal adviser to the Cabinet Committee on Government Administration on personnel matters affecting all State Services, and the official negotiating body on major service-wide issues. The report was released yesterday.

Also recommended were:— “An executive sub-commit-tee with parallel service representation be established to become, under delegation from ‘ie State Services Coordinating Committee, the main negotiating body for most inter-service issues. “The executive sub-commit-tee ascertain whether any proposal has a siginficant inter-service content, and arrange for inter-service negotiating parties. “A Hospital Service Committee be established under the chairmanship of the Director-General of Health and with representatives of the Health Department, the Hospital Boards’ Association, and the State Services Commission, to be in charge of negotiations, and to advise the Cabinet Committee on Government Administration (through the Minister of Health) on matters affecting public hospitals staff and not being of an inter-service nature.

Education Committee “An Education Service Committee be established under the chairmanship of the Director-General of Education and with representatives of the Education Department, the Education Boards’ Association, the Secondary School Boards' Association and the State Services Commission to be in charge of negotiations, and to advise the Cabinet Committee on Government Administration (through the Minister of Education), on matters affecting education service staff (excluding universities). “The members of the State Services Co-ordinating Committee be given equal power in respect of the services which they individually represent, to negotiate and to issue determinations within any limitations set by the Cabinet, the Cabinet Committee on Government Administration, or the State Services Co-ordinating Committee.

Police be given power to issue determinations, within any limitations set by the Cabinet Committee on Government Administration or the chairman of the State Services Co-ordinating Committee.

“The non-teaching staffs of the Secondary School Boards (and if necessary other boards and councils within the Education Service) be brought within the operation of the appropriate pay-fixing regulations. “The Cabinet and Cabinet Committee on Government Administration expand their delegations to take full advantage of the proposed improved co-ordination machinery.” Adjustments The Commission accepted that for some years to come regular interim adjustments of all State salaries and wages will be needed, and a recommendation that these be based on movements revealed by the Labour Department’s half-yearly survey, and not on those shown by the ruling rates survey which is the present practice. Such adjustments should be applied as a percentage of pay, and taken through to the highest salary level.

The rates paid State tradesmen and labourers should nevertheless continue to be set in relation to the ruling rates survey, but there should be four separate rates

for different groups of tradesmen, instead of one common rate as at present. The report includes a state: ment of belief in the superior merits of one tribunal to deal with all State Services instead of the existing single service tribunals. If this is unacceptable to the Government, then indubitably a new State Services Tribunal should be constituted to deal with matters having consequences over more than one service: thereby leaving the other tribunals to cases affecting one service only. There should be a common chairman for all tribunals and one central registry. The commission recommends that the jurisdiction of the tribunal, or tribunals, be considerably extended to cover all positions other than the highest administrative posts; except that the Government should be left, in the meantime, with an area of responsibility for determining how far overseas competition

is to affect certain New Zealand State pay rates, for example, university and medical salaries. Improved Machinery The commission concludes that the existing machinery for negotiation and co-ordina-tion of State pay needs improvement by reconstructing the State Services Co-ordin-ating Committee and its subcommittees (a) to provide for wider representation thereby enabling negotiations to take place between two fully representative sides, and (b) to relieve the Cabinet Committee on Government Administration and Ministers of much work. The extent of control over pay fixing in State corporations and other agencies in the interests of co-ordination with State pay should be determined having regard to the Government’s financial interest in the organisation or agency concerned, and be no more than is really necessary.

“The Commissioner of