M.O.W. Problem With Staff

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32349, 15 July 1970, Page 32

M.O.W. Problem With Staff

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 14.

Concern about the rapid turnover of employees and the low financial provision for plant replacement is voiced in the annual report of the Ministry of Works, tabled in Parliament today.

“This year again," says the, report, “the turnover of employees has been a considerable drain on the department’s training and recruitment efforts.”

The report of Mr K. E. Mapstone, director of mechanical and electrical engineering, says: “The finance provided for fleet replacement this year remained at the low level of the preceding two years and this, together with escalation of equipment prices of some 70 per cent in the last five years, resulted In the lowest level of replacement of departmental plant in 20 years.” The report on staffing, which appears above the name of the Commissioner of Works (Mr F. R. Askin) says that in the last five years the net turnover of civil engineers in the age group 30 to 35 has been 100 per cent—that is, resignations have matched staff numbers in this period. “Losses are also serious in the middle group of trained technicians and draughtsmen. The situation is particularly acute in the mechanical and electrical engineering field,” Mr Askin says. “As long as the present imbalance continues in the

training effort between Government and private enterprise, little relief can be expected from losses of trained staff until the entire market is satisfied,” says Mr Askin, who notes that the Government sponsored one half of

tthe trainees registered with the Technicians’ Certification Authority.) Mr Askin mentions professional legal staff and accounting staff as two other areas where shortages are critical.