Salary ceiling blamed for ‘imminent crisis’

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 28

Salary ceiling blamed for ‘imminent crisis’

PA Wellington A crisis is imminent in the electrical supply industry, with many highly qualified staff taking up more lucrative employment overseas, says the Electrical Supply Authorities Association’s magazine. In the latest issue of “Live Lines,” the editor, Mr Terry Hore, said the Higher Salaries Commission had been partly responsible for the problem. “The problem has been created in part by the imposition of a Higher Salaries Commission with power to decide what any employer in the local government or Government sector may pay to the most senior people.”

Mr Hore said this meant there was no opportunity for an employer to reward particular skills or exceptional performance. He said there was an urgent need for the commission to understand that not all local authorities were the same, nor were the responsibilities of the people employed by local government identical. “It is one thing to allocate a salary maximum on the basis of numbers of ratepayers or consumers the income of the authority, the number of staff and so on but there are other criteria which should be used to weight the reward,” Mr Hore said.