State service pay cannot compete for specialists

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 20

State service pay cannot compete for specialists

PA Wellington The Public Service cannot compete with payments offered to specialists in the private sector, according to the report of the State Services Commission, tabled in Parliament.

Losses of economists, industrial relations officers, trade officials, and electronic data proccessing staff highlighted the gap between Public Service and private sector salaries, said the report. The gap had been “further exacerbated by the volatility in the private sector specialist and management salaries during and since the lifting of the wage freeze.”

Attempts to retain and attract specialist staff were restrained by procedures for setting chief executive salaries, which in turn set the limits for lower salaries, said the report.

The “sinking lid” policy controlling staffing levels had been abandoned in

March this year and replaced by a more general policy under which requests for increases in staff levels would be “critically examined during the review of departmental estimates.” The over-all number of public servants dropped about 300 to 85,423 at the end of March this year, and the report noted two changes which, it said, may be of long-term significance. Recruitment of junior staff and graduates rose sharply during the year, but at the same time the turnover rate for permanent staff increased from 8.9 per cent at the end of March, 1984, to 12.6 per cent at the end of March this year.

“This reversed the steady decline in staff turnover that had occurred since 1979-80,” the report said.

The Public Service had moved to improve efficiency in a bid to help the Government meet its aim of making better use of public money.

Initiatives taken during the year included examination of the way departments used staff and other resources. Departments would be required to state what they planned to achieve in the coming year and later to account for the use of resources in the light of their achievements.

Departments would also be required to expand their regular three-yearly reports to Ministers to include performance evaluation and areas for management improvement.

The commisssion also encouraged departments to apply principles drawn from private sector management to their operations. “This ‘commercial approach’ has also been injected into the service by the appointment of private sector managers to advisory boards, such as the Government Office Accommodation Board, which shape the policy for some State enterprises,” said the report.