THE P. & T. SCHEDULE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 179, 23 April 1924, Page 6

THE P. & T. SCHEDULE

OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION AND THE MINISTER WAGE BASIS ON 1914 LIVING STANDARD URGED MINISTER SAYS DEPARTMENT MUST PAY ITS WAY A deputation from the P. and T. Officers’ Association waited on the Postmaster-General yesterday to discuss the new schedule submitted to the officers last week. They did not reach the discussion of the actual offers of the Government, as the chief point in their claims —that the wage should be fixed to allow of the 1914 standard of living—took up most of the time. The Minister promised to give the points raised consideration, but he would have to submit any resolve to Cabinet. . . The Minister said that he anticipated that the P. and T. Department would return a revenue of £4uO,OOU over expenditure, but of that amount nearly the whole would be required to pay interest on the capital invested. Gould they suggest where the additional amount they would require could be raised? Mr Collins said that they considered that the members of the service were entitled to be brought back to the 1914 standard of living, and they had based their schedule on that principle. . Mr. Coates: Maybe you are right if everyone in the country could be placed on the same basis, but I am not sure that any section of the community is entitled to put themselves into one group, and say “Give us this it does not matter about the rest.” Have von considered that it would mean an increase in the cost of the service to the public? . , , , Mr Combs: The service is loaded with a lot of impossible propositions, such as some of the mail services. In anv case, it is a social service. . Mr Coates: We are treating it as a commercial service, and while. 1 am Postmaster-General we will continue to treat it as a commercial seiwice. Mr. Combs: You nay lots of the men £3 13s. 4d., like the linesmen. Mr Coates: Suppose I say that I will brine- them into line. with the other members of the service? If I give them nt least as much, will that satisfy vou? Mr. Combs: No. Some of them have been continiinuslv employed lor months. I could almost say years. The Minister: All I can say is that if there are injustices we will put them right. Dlr. Combs: A man cannot live on less than £4 10s. a week, and he should receive. that if he gives efficient service, instead of sendnux his wife out washiniTor taking in boarders. You tell us that the service must be a commercial service, and at ths same time it must bear the cost of all the services run at a loss. The Minister: What services are run at a loss? The Department would not be worth twopence without the mail services. . . Mr. Combs: It is recognised in other parts of the world as a social service. The Minister: T look on it ns a revenue-earning department, and, it must be made to carry its own weight. Mr. Combs alluded to the reduced postage, but was met by the statement that the increased traffic would compensate for the reduction. Air. Combs: We know that the concessions equal a quarter of a million to the people of New Zealand. Th* Minister: Don’t you think they should get it? That must have a direct bearing on the cost of living. For a brief time attention was turned to the comparison of the old and new schedules. The new schedule provides for steps of £lO, and in two cases of £l5. A suggested schedule providing for £340, after seven years’ service in the first division, was produced liv the delegates. Air. Combs: We have followed the principal that the same course should be followed inside the service as outside it. That, in the higher classes, a young fellow should spend five years in learning his profession, and that after another two years as an improver, should qualify for the maximum salary of his class. Mr. Alarkman: We have tried to bring the service up to what is done outside. We have gone as far as possible. Afr. Combs : We think that after five years’ apprenticeship, and two years’ improving, a cadet should be entitled to the maximum. The Afinister: At what age does a boy join? Mr. Combs: About 16. Tn his 24th year he would move to £340, the maximum. Mr. Coates: In 11 years now he gets £295. Afr. Combs: In his 27th year he gets £295, and he may stay there for ten years. It is the average boy one must consider, and not the smart boy. When a boy reaches 21 he has reached man’s estate, and should be entitled to a man’s wage. A’ou know that a cheap cadet is often a telegraphist. Mr. Alarkman: Where outside the service would you find a man in 11 years’ service drawing £340? Mr. Combs: In the banks. Mr. Alarkman: More like £290. Mr. Combs: The banks get a bonus. Afr. Coates: A’ou are now offered an increase of £lO. I want to find out in what branch of employment a clerk can reach £340 in eight years. It comes to this, that the salary of the schedule you have drafted is not based on what is going on outside, but is based on the purchasing power of the sovereign in 1914. Air. Combs: It is based on two points, the five years and two subsequent years’ service to qualify for the maximum, and the embodiment of a living standard in the schedule. The Minister: The basis of your proposals is the value of money in 2914? —“Yes.” Mr. Combs : The penny of to-day is only worth two-thirds that of the penny of 1914, and the commercial people are getting the most benefit from the reduction in the postage., and we feel that by the under-payment of the staff you are making a present of that amount to them. Mr. Combs asked that a £5 step be given messengers in their second year, as an incentive to keep boys in the service. Afr. Robertson: TVe have plenty of boys. . . , Mr. Coates: T believe it is a good department to belong to. They seem to like it. Mr. Markman: Have yon any figures to support the statement that £4 10s. is the lowest that a man can live on? If we were to offer £4 10s. a week we would have swarms round the Post Office. It would draw away all the men from the public works. Air. Combs: If a standard of living is embodied in this schedule then it "is a very poor onp. The embodiment of the adequate standard of livino- in the schedule is our cardinal point* Mr. McKenzie said that the cmbodimort of the standard appeared to

be the stumbling-block to discussion, and the Minister agreed that such a course would have to bo submitted to his colleagues. Mr. McKenzie said that when an officer, after 11 years’ service had reached £295, at which stage he had often the heaviest family responsibilities, he might stay there for 10 years. Nearly 3000 officers were in this grade. It was evident that the cost of living must be borne in mind in the schedule. They were vitally concerned in the spending power of wages. . Some such basis was imperative in the consideration of the old and new schedules, and the Government would de well to establish a real standard today. ' The Minister: I think the best thing for you to do is to explain the method in which you suggest that these changes should be made, then for me to carefully consider them, and for you to come along again, when we could go fully into the matter. Mr. Robertson, referring to the 2628 men on the maximum wage, said that only 23 per cent, of these officers were eligible to receive larger salaries when vactmc/s urosa. The only way in which 77 per cent, could progress would be by the maximum of the class being raised, as they were doing nothing to improve themselves, and hundreds of them had been superseded by younger officers who had qualified themselves for promotion. The delegates having again stressed the importance of the consideration of the standard of living in making up the schedule, tlie Afinister agreed to give the matters careful consideration, when he would again meet them and reply.