PUBLIC SERVICE OVERTIME

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 113, 14 May 1940, Page 6

PUBLIC SERVICE OVERTIME

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I have been informed that the Public Service Commissioner, has asked various Departments of the service to put in ten hours a week overtime, which presumably will be paid for. I consider the idea an imposition on the members of the Public Service and an unjust action towards unemployed men. When the Labour Party went into power one of its objects was Ito find work for everybody. I consider, therefore, that firstly, anybody working overtime is helping to keep the other fellow out of a job; secondly, no man can. work ten hours a week overtime and still maintain efficiency at his job. He may be able to do it for a while but it cannot last. There are still hundreds of men looking for work, and plenty of clerks are available for immediate employment. All available unemployed men who are capable of doing clerical work should be absorbed before considering working the Government employees overtime. —I am, etc., E. CASEY. [On inquiry, it was ascertained that selected officers are working overtime in connection with man-power registration, but not necessarily ten hours weekly. A certain amount of overtime will be unavoidable on account of the lack of accommodation and the necessity for the employment of at least a percentage of trained clerical men. It is the -intention to engage efficient clerical assistance from the ranks of the unemployed wherever it is possible and economical so to do.]