Discrimination alleged

Press, 17 June 1980, Page 14

Discrimination alleged

Job discrimination, on the grounds of sex or race have been banned by the Human Rights Commission Act, but there is another group that is being discriminated against .’■ — public servants, according to Mr B. T. Knight, general manager of Key Personnel, Ltd, which runs a chain of employment agencies. Many employers refused even to interview job applicants from the public service, he said. “The public service is widely seen to be synonymous withf; P oor service, slowness, and inefficiency,” he said. “It’s certainly true that the public service, like much of private enterprise, has a

knack for putting HR least qualified, poorest paid, poorest trained, and least motivated people in frontline situations where they, will have a maximum con,- . tact with the public and be, able to do the greatest damage to the publicservice image. ■ i - ; “But it isn’t fair tp ■ off the whole ' public; service as hopeless just because of that. Many public servants are quite efficient and quite dedicated to giving good value in return for their salary. Many of them would fit quite easily into privateenterprise situations. Many of them would inject some new ideas into companies.’’