POST AND TELEGRAPH OFFICERS

Evening Star, Issue 16515, 29 August 1917, Page 7

POST AND TELEGRAPH OFFICERS

At the annual conference of the Post and Telegraph Officers' Association, which opened at Wellington yesterday, the following resolutions were passed : That this conference endorse the efforts of the Grand Council of State Servants regarding the efforts made towards reducing the high cost of living, and ask them again to impress upon the Government the necessity of making a practical effort to fix such maximum prices for household commodities as effectually to eliminate undue profits in production and marketing same. If the difficulties in doing this are held to be insurmountable, then the salaries and wages should bo periodically raised to make the "real" wages ruling prior to the war and the present time equal. That the conference are of opinion that the Government should be asked to exercise the powers conferred on them by section 24 of the Public Service Act, and grant a pro rata increase in salary to cover the decreased spending power of the sovereign since the commencement of the war. That salaries should bo paid fortnightly, so as to assist lower-paid officers to take the fullest advantage of the benefits to he derived from paying cash for their requirements. That this association regret that the Government, who took great caro (through the Minister of Defence) to recommend employers to help recruiting by granting part pay and allowances to employees on active service, cannot grant part civil pay to public servants on active service, and urge that half civil pay bo granted to all public servants, such payments to be retrospective, and at least half-pay should be granted to _ all officers performing specialist duties. That the department be urged now to give preference to married iiren for specialist positions, and that men with practical experience be selected for these duties;. The conference urged that the war bonus already provided for bv the Minister of Finance should be allocated on a slicing scale, tho number of the family of the officer concerned to be teken into con s : deration, while the bonus allotted to single officers drawing small salaries should be increased. The conference placed on record their appreciation of the secretary's endeavor to release al! officers volunteering or called up for service with the Expeditionary Force.