State staffing crisis 'inevitable’

Press, 5 August 1985, Page 5

State staffing crisis 'inevitable’

PA Wellington The State Services Commission’s chairman, Dr Mervyn Probine, believes that the present staffing crisis in the Public Service was inevitable. Asked whether he thought there was an inevitability about the situation in light of the wage freeze, Dr Probine said, “I think there is, Mudslide toll The death toll from a landslide in central Japan that engulfed an old people’s centre last week rose to 26 yesterday with the recovery of the last three bodies of those missing from the home, the police said. The victims could not flee because they were bedridden or confined to wheelchairs. The landslide crushed the Shojuso retirement home after heavy rain loosened earth and rock on the southern slope of the 733 m Mount Jizuki. — Nagano

but I make no judgment on whether it was a good policy or not.” Dr Probine said the freeze had interrupted the normal machinery for personal and occupational gradings. It had been four years since the questions of top salaries within the Public Service, which set the trend, was addressed. There had only been a short round, from December to March this year, after the freeze and only four of about 150 occupational classes could be properly addressed. Therefore a large backlog of matters had to be attended to and the commission was still unable to adjust pay rates until November. There was an enormous catch-up to be made. It was difficult but he hoped “at the end of this round we will be a lot closer to being on track,” Dr Probine said. The private sector was

subject to restrictions, such as the 12-month rule, as well, but, said Dr Probine, people who wanted to leave private sector jobs could be persuaded to stay by offers of interest-free loans or cars. Dr Probine said he found it flattering that public servants were so well trained they readily found jobs in the private sector. One in 9.5 of all members of the Public Service, he said, had a university degree which was not in itself a “passport to brilliance” but a measure of the level of Public Service recruitment. That figure also did not take into account diplomas or trade certificates.

“I am not surprised other people think our people are good,” Dr Probine said.