Bill for retiring servicemen introduced

Press, 17 April 1982, Page 7

Bill for retiring servicemen introduced

Parliamentary reporter Retiring members of the Armed Services will be eligible for jobs in the Public Service on the same footing as existing Public Service officers under a bill introduced in Parliament yesterday. The State Services Amendment Bill mirrors a similar amendment made in 1973 which qualified teachers for Public Service vacancies.

If the bill becomes law, only Regular Force members of the Armed Services will be affected, and then only if they have been in the Armed Services for a minimum of two years immediately preceding their job application to the Public Service.

An exception to this limitation will be if the applicant comes immediately from the Armed Services, having been there for less than two years, but having been before that a probationer or officer in the Public Service for a length of time which, together with the period of Armed Services employment, is equal to two years or more.

If these qualifications are met, the Armed Services applicant must be regarded as an officer of the Public Service for the purpose of a job application. This will put members of the Armed Services in the

same category as employees of the Post Office, the Railways Corporation, the Legislative Department, the Security Intelligence Service, the Hospital service, the Education service, and the New Zealand Planning Council who already have that employment right. Existing members of the Public Service will have their usual right of appeal against such appointments — which does not, however, apply to a schedule of specified posts, mainly departmental . heads — and the appeal shall be decided on merit, of whatever degree.

Until now, members of the Armed Services have been eligible for Public Service jobs like any outsider but subject to appeal from Public Service employees in which the outsider must demonstrate a markedly greater merit for the job. A special provision of the bill would prevent any member of the Armed Services being appointed Secretary of Defence, Deputy Secretary of Defence, or Assistant Secretary of Defence within three years of Armed Service employment. Speaking to the introduction of the bill, the Minister of State Services (Mr Thomas) said that New Zealand spent a great deal of

money on the training of those in the Armed Services, many of whom had skills and attributes which would be valuable in the Public Service. -

Those skills and attributes were lost to the State on early retirement from the Armed Services, but the bill would allow more ready availability of them by way of transfers to the Public Service. • The bill was introduced without dissent and referred to the Labour and Education Select Committee.