POSTAL SALARIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 113, 16 May 1938, Page 11

POSTAL SALARIES

MANY APPEALS MADE

COMPLAINTS OF INJUSTICES

Intense dissatisfaction exists among many members of the postal section of the Post and Telegraph Department at salary and grading classifications announced early last December and made effective from April 1, states today's "New Zealand Herald." Members of the service were given from May 1 to 11 to make appeals, and it is stated that hundreds of objections have been lodged with the Department, including scores from Auckland. The alleged unsystematic manner in which the classifications have been carried out is the chief cause of complaint,

it being that many injustices have resulted. Jor no apparent reason, it is stated, some men have been advanced to higher grades and salar- ( ies whereas ,nurfierous others, engaged 1 in identical work or, as in some in- E stances, in more responsible positions, have had no promotion in grade and 1 little or no increase in salary. ONE SECTION'S VIEXVS. ( Senior men in grade seven, where j the maximum salary limitation Is £305 a year, are those who are ( vigorously protesting against their treatment. Employed as clerks in various branches of the postal section; ' many of these have unblemished re- • cords extending oyer 30, and 35 years, have wide experience of the Department's work, and have various exam- « inations to their .credit While wishing ' their fellows every success in any ad- j vancement made, they protest emphatically against the principle that '■ has been adopted in numerous cases J of promoting younger and less qualified i men to higher grades and consequently i better salaries, especially when the lat- < ter continue to do the same w,ork as before. ' ■ ■ „„„ 1 Formerly in the grade seven on £295 < a year, some men have been advanced ■ to grade six on an annual salary Of : £320, whereas mbre experienced clerks i from whom tljey continue to take instructions and to whom they are still responsible remain, in grade seven at either the old rate of £295 or at the slightly higher figurfe of £305. What makes the injustice more marked m the view of those on the maximum salary in grade seven is that in spite of all their efforts and good work they , have practically no chance whatever of getting out of the grade. On the other hand, the men placed m grade six have been put in a. section from which much of the recruiting for higher grades is done. ' HIGHER GRADES AFFECTED. The discontent in grade seven is not confined to the senior men, however, for even a number of those who have been placed in the higher grade at £320 do not consider that they have had the promotion to which they feel entitled and are also lodging appeals. Dissatisfaction also exists in higher grades, notably grade five, where it is claimed that for no accountable reason a section of the men have been given advancement while others with equally onerous duties remain unpromoted. Among those in higher grades who are lodging objections are'postmasters in smaller centres and-"assistant supervisors. The varying swes of salary increases is' another factor which members of the service find difficult to exP Again', -some offlbers state that the Government has not fulfilled its promise to restore' salaries to at least predepresslon rates, and back _up their assertions by quoting individual cases. Clerks who formerly received £320 a year were reduced to £295 during the depression, but many are now receiving at the most only £305 per annum. < Further, it is claimed that the Dei partment promised that the recent ! salary classification would be made retrospective to• April. 1, 1937, aiid that, ' back pay would-be given. Many have ' certainly received this back pay, but - there are numerous other instances m [■ which not a penny has been received.