Higher Salaries Committee

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

Higher Salaries Committee

The Higher Salaries Advisory Committee should continue to conduct general reviews triennially, at April, says the report of the Royal Commission on Salary and Wage Fixing procedures in the New Zeai land State Services. Other < recommendations are: j “The salaries fixed on or I following the recommenda[tioris of the Higher Salaries i Advisory Committee be promulgated by Order in CounIcil and not by specific appropriation by Parliament. “The Hospital Medical Officers Advisory Committee continue to recommend pay scales for hospital doctors, and steps be taken to bring hospital dentists within its scope.

“The University Salaries Committee continue to recommend pay scales for university teachers, and no change be made for the time being in its composition and procedures. “The Principal Personnel Officers Committee and the Armed Services Pay and Conditions Advisory Committee continue to recommend pay scales for the Armed Services, the former conducting frequent and regular reviews and the latter conducting such inquiries as the Minister of Defence from time to time may direct. “No change be made in the procedures for recommending changes in the remuneration of the judiciary. “When the Higher Salaries Advisory Committee, the Hospital Medical Officers Advisory Committee and the University Salaries Committee are conducting contemporaneous reviews, the chairmen of the three committees keep each other informed of their intentions, but each committee remain free to decide what its recommendations shall be.”

Pay Research Unit

The establishment in the Department of Statistics of a pay research unit for the State Services is recommended by the Royal Commission on Salary and Wage Fixing Procedures in the New Zealand State Services. The Royal Commission recommended that a steering or advisory committee be established, with an independent chairman, but otherwise representative of employing authorities and employee associations, to be responsible for the selection of occupational groups to be reviewed by the unit. The manner in which any review is carried out. the coverage of firms, the statistical techniques employed, and the way in which the final report is prepared and presented, should be the sole responsibility of the director of the unit in co-operation and consultation with the Government Statistician and his staff. If the staff associations are not willing to co-operate in the establishment of the unit, it should still be estab* lished in a form which will enable them to participate whenever they may decide to do so.