THE BANK CLERK.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3584, 9 March 1914, Page 3

THE BANK CLERK.

IMPROVING HIS LOT,

AGITATION IN ENGLAND. The poor bank clerk has served novelists of the past Wo generations as a lay figure, and Iris poor pay and poor prospects have been utilised to gove some semblance of fact to fiction. The bank clerk is one of the Latest coaGon toilers to become infected with unrest, and in England at any rate he has some reason on his side. The London “Daily Telegraph” has been enquiring into the matter of the bank clerks’ pay and prospects, and there has been much correspondence in its columns on the subject. It hs found that a banking career, taking the pay and the prospects into account, had lost its attractiveness to both lads and parents. ,In England, and especially in London, notwithstanding the huge oversupply of clerical labor, it is becoming difficult to obtain recruits for a banking career. Pay was small, work was arduous, promotion slow —unless the clerk had much influence, plus ability. The “Telegraph” learned 1 from hankers that salaries come under review at Christmas with the regularity of clockwork. Sometimes they begin at £SO per annum and go on increasing £lO a year until they reach the limit of £2OO. In the bigger band the limit i s £250. Clerks are forbidden to marry unless the joint income of husband and wife reaches £l5O. In a case of exceptional merit the increase is not £lO, but £ls or even £2O a year. Owing to the policy of the-bank amalgamation, there had been an enormous augmentation in the number of branches established. This development vastly enhanced the prospects of the clerks, for whom appointment as managers means instant promotion to a higher grade. The larger the branch, the higher the salary. Men of conspicuous ability attain high positions at the head office, where the emoluments count by thousands instead of by hundreds.

THE HUMDRUM MEN. At one of the greatest of the London joint stock hanks the directors have raised the commencing salary, as well as the' limit to which clerks can go — a double step, We importance of which cannot he overe-stimated. This, the “Telegraph” was assured, had been under consideration for a considerable time without the slightest pressure from,outside. Absolute contentment prevailed amongst the staff. Other banks adopt the. bonus system. Humdrum men always remained on the lower scale. They would not shine in any path of life. It was said that they, and they alone, are the men who complain. Mr Hughes, of the National Union of Clerks, informed the ‘‘Telegraph'’ that it was the junior clerk who needed better pay. Parents bad to keep the junior clerk for years. There was a tradition that the position of the bank clerk was such a superior one and his prospects so rosy that parents were glad to start their boys’ careers in a bank at almost any salary.. Prospects of the junior were, a s a matter of fact, very poor. It would be interesting to get a return showing bow many bank clerks under 30 years of age were married. Banks made it a rule to forbid a clerk to marry until he received a certain salary per annum, and numbers found marriage impossible because they did not reach the allotted minimum. That rule was framed with a view to keeping a clerk free from temptation with regard to the cash he handled. He had found clerks increasingly dissatisfied. Some reached the minimum salary upon which they were permitted to marry, and for a few years matters progressed satisfactorily, but when the chancellor of the domestic exchequer pointed out that every commodity was costing more and she must have an increased allowance to cope with it, he discovered that his salary —compared with the general rise—had diminished.

A “PAINED” SHAREHOLDER. “A Shareholder” wrote to the “Telegraph stating that he had been “pained”—and that expression was not too strong— to read the letters which have appeared with reference to the posiion of bank clerks. “I confess that the facts have come as a revelation to rne, and they will interfere not a little with the satisfaction with which I shall, in a short time, receive my usual dividends. They are at the rate of 20 per cent .on the face value of the shares, and I am apparently only just beginning to learn the price at which this prosperity is being purchased. “As a business man I am convinced that continuing prosperity depends on contentment. At least that h,a s been my experience. I pay well and I expect good service. I recognise that if I do not pay well I have no right to expect good‘service. The great banking institutions of the country, I learnt from conversations I have had to-day, pay badly—indeed, miserable sums in some instances —and yet they expect good service. “I learn that clerks of twenty and thirty years’ service receive remuneration which does not exceed that of a fairly skilled artisan. Nevertheless, bank clerks must come of good families, the character of which must, he beyond reproach ; they must have received a liberal education; they must always be well dress-d and well groomed they must have good manners and address; they must he scrupulously accurate in their work; they must be punctual to the minute in attendance; and their honesty, wften they come to handle vast sums of money, must he like Caesar’s wife. These are very high qualifications. Those who reach this standard ought- to be reasonably rewarded, and I believe many bank shareholders reading the letters which you [“The Telegraph”] are printing will agree with me in protesting against the injustice which is now practised on a deserving body of intelligent and hard-working servants.

not. a STRUGGLING INDUSTRY. is not a Tryipt' On the contrary, it istandx- 1 ceedmgly prosperous, one—as D have ioundi to my profit'as a shafelfi>Mer; Banks do well, whatever the coiidition of national trade; whether it i s boom-

ing or the reverse, they make handsome profits. I have been surprised, indeed, to notice how well they do, and' what handsome returns original shareholders have had. ... I have read that the past year lias be, n so prosperous tilt there is a probability in many case s of dividends being increased. May I suggest that justice should be done to the staffs before further generosity is shown to the shareholders? We owe everything to those who run the banks, and it is time wo showed our appreciation in some more tangible form than the occasional passing of votes of thanks.”