’Phone waiting lists measured in years

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33873, 19 June 1975, Page 18

’Phone waiting lists measured in years

The Post Office Association wants the Government to admit publicly that the provision of telephone service in New Zealand has reached a critical stage, and that many people will have to wait vears for service.

The association wants' Government admission of responsibility, to take the brunt of public hostility away from Post Office staff, particularly in *he main centres.

The national secretary of the association (Mr I. Reddish) told "The Press” yesterday that the standard of service was deteriorating, and that waiting lists for telephone service were lengthening at a time when the Government was trving to cut or hold staff levels, and to reduce overtime.

Mr Reddish said that waiting lists w'ere ‘‘blowing out” to exaggerated proportions in the main centres, not only because there were insufficient trained staff but because overtime had been reduced and because planning ahead for the nrovision of service was inadequate. “STOP-GO BUNGLING” Mr Reddish said the association was quite unimpressed with all the recent talk of the previous Post-master-General, Mr H. J. Walker, about the shortcomings of the Government in meeting public reauirements. The previous Government "stop-go bungling and meddling" in Post Office planning was largely responsible for the present chaotic situation, he said. This was compounded bv ( the Government’s present [ plans to reduce overtime and adopt other measures to de-I press public demand for ser-| vice.

Mr Reddish could not understand the thinking which prompted the Government to try to curtail expenditure on what was a revenue-producing work. He forecast that bv Christmas, toll operators in the main centres would be unable to handle traffic because the exchanges were now near break-down point.

The situation in the postal division was far from satisfactory in Auckland and Christchurch, where staff worked in atrocious condi♦ions with equipment incapable of handling the volumes of mail coming in and out. The Regional Engineer in

Christchurch (Mr D. M. McFarlane) confirmed yesterday that there were more than 4000 telephone jobs to be done in the metropolitan area. They included service to 1360 applicants, who might have to wait two years for; a telephone. The other work related to jobs where service could be supplied when staff was available. Since 1969. there had been no significant increase in the size of the staff of the con-; struction and maintenance [ branch, although the per- I centage increase in the demand for telephone service. had doubled. There had been i increases in the number of'

technicians now engaged in setting up the zone centre exchange for the introduction of subscriber toll dialling. By Easter next year, subscriber toll dialling (STD) would be introduced into Christchurch, and by the end of 1976 would cover the whole of the metropolitan area. Mr McFarlane said. NOMINAL REDUCTION There had been only a (nominal reduction in overtime in Christchurch. Saturday work had been reduced from four to three Saturdays .a month because staff would | not work six days a week 'every week.