BRITISH CIVIL SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 6, 2 October 1929, Page 11

BRITISH CIVIL SERVICE

ROYAL COMMISSION APPOINTED .

QUESTION OF EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK

(British Official Wireless.)

(Rec. October 1, 5.30 p.m..)

Rugby, September 80. The King has approved of the appointment of a Royal Commission on the Civil Service under the chairmanship of Lord Tomlin. Its fifteen members include educational authorities and persons connected with public work, and five of them are women—namely, the Duchess of Atholl, who is a Conservative member of Parliament; I Mrs. Ayrton Gould, Mrs. Hamilton (labour member of Parliament), Mrs. Lowe and Mrs. Wintringham, former Liberal member of Parliament The terms of reference are to inquire into and report on, firstly, the structure and organisation of the Civil Service, including that of recruitment; secondly, the conditions of service, with particular reference to the general standard of remuneration and the existing differentiation between the remunera-

tion payable respectively to men and women Civil Servants, the machinery for discussion and settlement of questions relating to conditions of service, and the position of the ex-service Civil Servant in unestablished employment; thirdly, conditions of retirement from the Civil Service, including the retirement of women Civil Servants on marriage.

“GIGANTIC UNDERTAKING”

QUESTION OF WOMEN’S PAY (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Australian Press Association. (Rec. October 1, 9.5 p.m.) . London, October 1. The Civil Service Royal Commission is a gigantic undertaking, states one of the Commissioners. The findings may affect hundreds of thousands. The terms of reference have been framed to bring every matter of importance affecting the civil service within the limits of the inquiry, particularly the position of the 75,000 women civil servants who have long been pressing for equal pay for equal work. Such a change will cost the country three millions sterling annually. Some of the men’s organisations are afraid the principle of equal pay will result in a general levelling ■ down of salaries. The “Morning Post” describes the Commission as an attempt to placate the trade union element of the Socialist Party. Ever since the general strike the civil service unions have agitated against the law preventing the eivll service unions partaking in political movements.