CIVIL SERVICE SALARIES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 122, 19 November 1926, Page 8

CIVIL SERVICE SALARIES

(To tho Editor.)

Sir,—Your correspondent "Fair Play" hardly lives up to his norn de plume in referring to the Civil Service Balary question. He states that salaries have not been reduced. Por his information let me quote, as far as the Post and Telegraph Department is concerned, an extract from the Postmaster-General's report for the year 1920:—"From the Ist April, 1920, the cost of living bonus was cancelled and salaries increased by £50 per annum for officers in receipt of over £140 per annum, and by £20 for those in receipt of salaries not exceeding £140. From the same date the minimum payment to married men of twenty-one years of age and over was fixed at £207 16s per a;tnum for salaried officers and 15s per day for wages men." That is clear, is it not?

Now, in the report of the PostmasterGeneral for 1921 we find a paragraph briefly headed "Reduction of Salaries," reading as follows: —"In connection with the Public Expenditure Adjustment Act, 1921-22, the salaries of all officers were reduced from Ist January, 1922, as follows: Salaries exceeding £1000 but not exceeding £1250 per annum, a reduction of 9 pej cent.; exceeding" £900,.but not exceeding £1000_ 8 per cent.; exceeding £800, but not exceeding £900, 7 per cent.; exceeding' £500, but not exceeding £800, a reduction of £25 per annum; exceeding £325, but not exceeding £500, a reduction of £20 per annum; exceeding £190, but not exceeding £320, a" reduction of £15 per annum; not exceeding £190, • reduction of £10. per annum." These salary cuts duly eventuated, and a further cut was made from Ist July, 1922.

It should be noted that the reports from which the extracts quoted have been taken were presented to Parliament by the Hon. J. G. Coates, the present Prime Minister, and accepted without question by members of Parliament. In view of this, it is difficult to understand how any person with ordinary regard fc "Fair Play" can continue-the endeavour _ spread the belief that the reduction was not in salaries but in cost 01 living bonus only. It may be mentioned that from 1912 to 1919 officers of the Post and Telegraph Department received no increase in salary grading whatsoever, and the increase granted from April, 1920, was enjoyed for less than two years before the first cut operated. All that now remains of the increase is infinitesimal compared with the increased cost of living since 1912, and I think "Fair Play" will admit that an increase is well due, more especially .to the Post and Telegraph Department, which is fully admitted to perform a wonderful national service and may be termed "the utility department of the Dominion."— I am, etc.,

BE FAIR.