TEMPORARY STATE EMPLOYEES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 49, 26 August 1939, Page 8

TEMPORARY STATE EMPLOYEES

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I read with interest the article in Monday's "Evening Post" regarding an interview with the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, and was especially interested in the latter portion wherein reference was made to Mr. Savage's expressed desire to at least give some relief to the lower paid State employees.

It is perfectly true that many capable men, who had been out of employment and were grateful to receive a temporary appointment, are being grossly underpaid. Even if there were justification for paying them a low initial wage until they had proved their worth, it is not right that they should remain on a low wage, when, largely through their previous outside experience and their initiative and enterprise, they reach the stage at which they are able to hold their own with, other permanent men doing similar work at a greatly increased salary.

Let me cite the case of a married man with one or more children, who is expected not only to support his family, but also to keep up a personal appearance on an i. itial salary of £220, or roughly, £4 per week after deducting tax. Such a position would have been difficult enough in the depression period, but with the present high cost of living it is intolerable. This point is all the more striking when a thought is given to the higher amounts paid outside the Government service as dozens of awards prove. The feeling in the service is that relief will come from the Prime Minister, who has repeatedly stated that his care was for the "under dog."—l am, etc.,

STRUGGLING WIFE,

the teachers' grading system, both the proposed efficiency examinations and the present marking system are likely to cause public servants to pay more attention to those things which will get them high marks than to those duties which the Public Service is expected to perform.—l am, etc.,

REAL EFFICIENCY,