Discontent over pay continues

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32970, 17 July 1972, Page 2

Discontent over pay continues

(From DAVID BARBER. N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent)

SINGAPORE, July 16.

Although all New Zealand servicemen based in Singapore will get more money as a result of new pay scales announced last week, there is still a lot of dissatisfaction over location allowances.

The biggest complaint is the Defence Department’s continued “on pay, off allowance” policy, which means that when overseas-based troops get pay rises awarded to all State servants or to their colleagues in New’ Zealand, their overseas location allowances are cut by the same amount. Because of this virtually none of New Zealand’s 1150 servicemen in Singapore will get any benefit from the 10 per cent income tax deduction in the last Budget. Their gain has been deducted from their allowances, according to sources in Singapore. The pay increases, which range from $NZ3.75 to about SNZI3 a fortnight, depending on rank and length of service, have been welcomed by the troops. But long-standing disgruntlement over location allowances paid to single men who live in barracks continues. This came to a head two weeks ago when 12 Royal New Zealand Air Force men walked off their base at Tengah in a protest over location allowances and were posted absent without leave. Eight of the airmen were on. Friday formally charged and sentenced for going absent without leave. The men were sentenced by" the commanding officer, R.N.Z.A.F. Forces, Singapore (Wing Commander C. E. B. Papps). No details of the sentences were given. Four other men, who went missing at the same time as the eight, were Dean’s son in choir

Jonathan Underhill, son of the Dean of Christchurch (tlfe Very Rev. M. L. Underhill) was admitted as a Cathedral chorister in a cefemony held before the service last evening. Dean Underhill believes that this is Ithe first time a Dean of Christchurch has had a son in the choir. Jonathan, who is a * pupil at Cathedral Grammar School, was one of seven boys admitted.

freed without charges being laid. There are three main factors in the continuing concern felt after the new pay scales: the retention of the “on pay, off allowances” policy; the disparity between single men’s location allowances and those paid to their married colleagues; and the fact that many single men still believe their allowance is not enough to cover the

extra costs they face while based in Singapore. Many senior officers say there is a lasting feeling of injustice among single men over their allowances, aggravated by the considerable gap between theirs and those paid to family men. Some say this has given rise to bad feeling between bachelors and married men throughout the army which might have lasting effects.