GOING BACKWARDS

Evening Star, Issue 21076, 13 April 1932, Page 3

GOING BACKWARDS

YOUNG MEN IN CIVIL SERVICE EFFECT OF LOSS OF INCREMENT [SPECIAL TO THE * STAK.’] CHRISTCHURCH, April 12. Tho decision that there shall be no increments in salary this year for Publie Service employees is causing great bitterness in all branches of the service, and it is generally complained that this is adding altogether too much to the burden of sacrifice that one section of the public is being called upon to bear. It is pointed out that when loss of increment is added to the proposed cut in salary, and that amount is substituted from the salary that would have been received had tho increment been paid and there were no cut, tho actual loss in salary amounts in some cases to upwards of 40 per cent. Another view taken is that the loss of the increment for one year means that the loser is a step behind in subsequent yogi's in increment, and that loss, spread out over ten years, amounts in some cases to £IOO. One Government official said the cut in salary would make things very difficult for the lower paid men, but that the loss of increment on top of that would be absolutely crippling. Young men in his department worked hard, and were entitled to expect some reward. It was found that, with the double loss now proposed, many of them would have absolutely nothing to look forward to. There were cases of men who desired to marry ; but 'they would be prevented from doing this because tho salary cut and the loss of the increment made marriage an impossibility. Actually it would mean that men who had earned advancement, and who had tho right to advancement, now found themselves doing better work, yere more experienced and more valuable to their departments, and yet were receiving less in salary' than they had been getting before.' One of the worst features of tire proposals and of the present manner of administration was that all chances of advancement seemed to have disappeared. A man had nothing to work for, no prospects except the prospect of going backwards in salary, no matter how hard ho worked.