Early Retirements Of Numerous Officers

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6519, 7 April 1931, Page 12

Early Retirements Of Numerous Officers

MEASURES OF POSTAL ECONOMY FEW NEW CADETSHIPS FALLING Valedictory paragraphs in newspapers all over New Zealand recently have shown that senior officers of the Post and Telegraph Department are being retired in abnormally largo numbers, and a certain amount of criticism has been aroused. In the ordinary course an ofifeer of the department may be retired on superannuation upon completing 40 years’ service or reaching the age of 60. As the average age of entry has been, and still is, 15 or 16, ycars_ this means that an officer leaves the service at 55 or so, when he should still be in his prime, with five years or more of potentially useful work ahead of him. Besides applying the normal rule, the department is said to have encouraged a number of senior officers to retire after only 3S or 39 years’ service, and a number have, in fact, done so, at some small sacrifice of superannuation. Moreover, clauses have boon introduced into the Finance Bill now before Parliament to allow public servants to retire voluntairly or to be retired compulsorily some years ahead of their time. It is proposody that in such cases superannuation benefits arc to be retained, subject to adjustments which will allow as large a rate of pension as possible to be paid, without putting a greater charge upon the fund than there would be if they remained for a normal term. Avenues of Promotion.

Such early retirements must be a doubtful economy, since they add to tho number of men drawing comparatively large pensions. On the other hand, the department has made an indirect saving by doing away with certain posts and re-arranging the w r ork so that it is done by subordinate officers at lower salaries than the previous holders. Postal officers consider that the department is “working a point” in this, but the early retirement plan is popular among them, because it opens avenues of promotion that otherwise would be blocked for years. The first Dominion Conference of the Post and Telegraph Officers’ Guild last year passed a resolution endorsing compulsory retirement after 40 years’ service. Few Cadets Being Accepted.

Perhaps a more compelling reason for the policy is that the staff of the repartment shows a natural decrease, and few cadets are being accepted this year. An alternative means of retrenchment would be to discharge junior officers, who would be thrown upon the labour market with little or no hope of getting other work.

In October last the PostmasterGeneral Hon. J. B. Donald, stated that tho staff had shrunk by nearly 1000 since 1925. This seems to have been due partly to the completion of tho programme of new trunk telegraph and telephone lines and automatic exchanges in the larger cities, and to tho installation of multiplex telegraphy Since parcel-post rates were increasd and the maximum weight of parcels was reduced there has been a heavy fall in this class of business, much of which has been diverted, no doubt intentionally', to the railways. These factors seem almost a complete explanation of the early retirements.