PUBLIC SERVICE SALARY CUTS.

Evening Star, Issue 21723, 18 May 1934, Page 6

PUBLIC SERVICE SALARY CUTS.

If the deputation which waited on the Prime Minister this week to ask for the restoration of Public Service salary cuts did not get all the satisfaction some of its members may have hoped for, it was not because it did not make the best of its case. Doubtless there was nothing new either to Mr Forbes or to Mr Coates, who was also present, in the facts presented. Knowing the object that was sought, they could appreciate the naturalness of the assurance that “ never in the history of the Public Service of this dominion have we come before responsible Ministers with as full unanimity as we do to-day.” Doubtless in any other, section of tho community that finds itself less prosperous than it used to be, and had to agree in a request for the restoration* of that prosperity, the unanimity would be the same. Tho case of the Public Service, endorsed by no fewer than ten societies which contribute to the voice of that great organisation, was set forth in a long manifesto in which no fact and no appeal was neglected to give it its full effect. Sympathy was required for heads of departments, “ carrying their load ” for such poor salaries as £752 and £866, but it was not for these relatively fortunate people that the main plea was made. They have not been reduced to “ financial breaking-point,” which was the condition declared to exist for the major portion of members, at least in tho case of married men. No one will suppose it to be an exaggeration for an appreciable proportion of the lowerpaid.

At a great many points the case put forward was impressive. The cost of the Public Service is made by its numbers, not by generosity of the salaries which its members, even in normal times, can attain to, which for the'most part rank conspicuously below those attainable in other forms of employ. Officers in all services in receipt of over £620 a year absorb £197,570, or 2.18 per cent, of the total salary bill of such services. The position of clerical officers, apart from the Railways and Post and Telegraph Departments, is set forth as follows There are approximately 3,600 purely clerical officers, including chief clerks and accountants. Under 250 of this number are receiving over £3BO per annum, while about 3,260 are paid £239 per annum or under. Nearly one-half of the 2,260 are on their maximum (£239), with anything from eleven to twenty years’ service behind them, married in the overwhelming 'majority of cases, and a big sprinkling with professional and university credentials.* If the figures for all sections of the Public Service were assembled the showing would be still poorer.” Superintendents of our principal power stations receive £3BO a year. On another grade, “ the firstclass engine driver, who may be driving the ‘ Limited ’ or other important express trains, receives £4 18s a week, which he can only attain after twenty years’ service.” Mr Forbes was able to agree that in comparison with those outside the service Civil servants were not well paid. Superannuation was supposed to make some compensation in their case, and now superannuation is involved in its own difficulties. But as far as cuts are concerned the service has suffered less than thousands who are out of employment, arid business men, not a few, who have had far harder reductions to bear. From what has been happening abroad, and has begun to happen here in other spheres, all the indications are that the cuts will be restored. But with a deficit of £700,000 on the last year’s finances, which would have been far greater but for trading on reserves, that cannot be done immediately. Tbe public servants will have to wait, and find what consolation they can in the comparative security of their employment.