The Press WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1968. State Servants’ Pay

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31775, 4 September 1968, Page 14

The Press WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1968. State Servants’ Pay

The Royal Commission on the fixing of pay in the State Services has hopefully pointed the way to the establishment of one tribunal to settle disputes over pay rates and conditions in all branches of State employment A bold Government—supported by Parliament—and the State Service organisations, if they were radically-minded, would seize this proposal as the one offering the best and simplest way of ending the present confusion of wage-fixing procedures. The Royal Commission, having done an immense amount of work on the questions put to it by the Government, has assumed that neither the Government nor the State’s employees are ready to accept this idea. It has suggested, as an interim device, the appointment of a chairman common to all the present wage-fixing tribunals who would have the status of a Judge of the Court of Arbitration and head a new State Services Tribunal to deal with issues affecting more than one branch of the State Services. As a transitional device this is ingenious and it is probably workable. If, however, it is an acceptable scheme it is surely a very small step short of the better plan: and that plan might well be adopted forthwith. The State Services Tribunal would then, in effect, become a second and specialised Court of Arbitration.

In one important respect it would differ from the court The court settles disputes on minimum award pay: the tribunal would not be determining fair rates for State employees if it simply adopted minimum award rates for comparable jobs in the State Services: award rates are not necessarily the ruling rates of pay in the market for labour. The tribunal would have to ensure that State employees are paid as well as workers in the private sector who receive wages above award levels. Assisted by a pay research unit—as recommended by the Royal Commission —a single and experienced tribunal, capable of viewing the whole range of State employment, would almost certainly improve on the present rough-and-ready system of ruling rates surveys and separate tribunals. State employment is isolated from the forces of the free market; otherwise the Arbitration Court could fix the pay of nearly all State servants. The proposed new tribunal would need to study carefully both the decisions of the Arbitration Court and the special conditions of employment in the Public Service. Everything would depend on the selection of a tribunal in which both the public and public servants would have confidence. They would need to be men of standing and experience inside and outside the Public Service. A tribunal so constituted would surely be capable of restoring order and equity in the wage structure of the large and important “ industry ” that is the Public Service.