Higher Salaries For Top Public Service Posts ?

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 August 1950, Page 4

Higher Salaries For Top Public Service Posts ?

WELLINGTON, This Day (0.C.).— -Professional and administrative officers m the higher grades of the public service are expecting that salary increases will be provided ioi them in the Budget, soon to be presented in Parliament. Strong claims have been entered on behalf of these sections of the service for adjustments to restore a greater relative salary for men in the more responsible positions in Government employment. It. is expected that these claims will find their answer in both the Budget and the public service classification list due to be published shortly.. The loss of skilled hydro-electric engineers to Australia is quoted as an indication of the trend which has developed in the public service because of the disparity between the rates paid in New Zealand for professional men and those paid overseas. Off To Australia It is reliably stated that about 10 highlyplaced New Zealand hydro-electric engineers are likely to go to the Snowy River hydroelectric project in Victoria shortly, and will receive salaries much higher than they are receiving in New Zealand. Twenty to . 25 others are in correspondence over appointments to the same project. The Professional Engineers’ Association, inrecent submissions to the Government on salary scales, included this statement: “The State Hydro-electric Department is having the greatest difficulty in maintaining progress on its development programme, and this difficulty will increase still more if the numbers of engineers cannot be maintained. The Railways Department wishes to proceed with electrification, but planning is necessarily slow because of the difficulties of obtaining professional staff. The Post Office is faced with unprecedented expansion of the telephone exchange and toll facilities, demanding extensive detailed engineering due to the major change from non-British to the British type of automatic telephone switching equipment. The rapid execution of this work is hampered by insufficient engineering staff. Rongotai aerodrome might be quoted as an additional example of long-drawn-out planning. Shortage Of Engineers “In other cases, the shortage of engineers is emphasised in a failure to fill vacant positions. There are a number of borough and county engineers’ positions vacant, although they have been advertised. We have been living on the past. We have been using our pool of professional engineers and not replacing them as we go. Today we have not the resilience to launch new schemes nor enough time to rationalise old ones.” The association has claimed substantial salary increases through the whole range of engineering work, and states that the profession has been losing ground since 1924. The association'has proposed-salary scales rising to £3200 a year for the head of the State Hydro-electric Department and £3700 a year for the Commissioner of Works. The salary for district engineers, Grade I, on the association’s claims, should be at £1650 a year.