THE TAX ON LIFE.

Northern Advocate, 14 October 1918, Page 1

THE TAX ON LIFE.

FELT BY POSTAL EMPLOYEES,

HUNDREDS RESIGNING— HIGHER WAGES WANTED.

The most dissatisfied branch of the Public Service for some time bast has been the Post and Telegraph Department (says the "New Zealand Times.") An average of hundred employees are leaving the service every month. What is the reason? Like so many other branches of employment the employees find that their present salaries are not sufficient to keep pace with the ever-in-creasing cost of living. Shortly over 7000 employees of the department intend to place the matter clearly before their Heads. The war bonus they regard as a rough-and-ready mode of meeting war prices. The Post and Telegraph employees see other employees getting increased pay and are getting restless in consequence. Not that they are asking better pay merely because other departments and trades have been properly treated, for dissatisfaction has held sway for the past five or six years. It has come to a head only within the past 18 months. This month the Post and Telegraph Association is holding a conference when the matter of better wages will be the big question. In the meantime the service is losing many hands who are being attracted to other branches of employment where better monetary inducements are offered and the prospects of advancement are more encouraging. At present the Post and Telegraph employee declares he struggles along on a small salary with the dim prospect in front of him that when his hair is becoming streaked with grey his pay envelope may be of a more satisfactory weight. WAR BONUS UNSATISFACTORY. The position was clearly placed before a "New Zealand Times" reporter yesterday by the secretary of the Post nd Telegraph Association (Mr. H. E. Combs.) "For the past four or five years," said Mr Combs, "dissatisfaction has existed in the department, but it has come to a head during the past eighteen months, in view of the cost of living. The post and telegraph service, as a service, is never very keen on the war bonus, as it only regards the payment of a bonus as a rough and ready makeshift. The association would gladly fall into line and assist as far as it is able in the direction of securing automatic increase of wages and salaries as the cost of living increases. It considers as a general principle that every man and woman is entitled to receive in exchange for their work sufficient to keep them and those dependent upon them at a fair average standard of comfort, and naturally, as the cost of every day commodities rise, such people have either to go without in some direction or other, or else receive a compensating increase in pay. To our mind the payment of a war bonus is just shuffling with the question, and shuffling in such a way that neither the recipient nor the tax payer is in any way satisfied."

SOMETHING RADICALLY WRONG.

"Speaking in general terms, the P. and T. servant is very far from drawing a wage which can be exchanged for a reasonable degree of comfort. It is hoped that those in authority who have the deciding of these things are beginning to appreciate this fact. The number of resignations every month from the service should have impressed upon them that some thing was radically wrong. The association is holding a conference this month, and hopes to go thoroughly into the details of what is required to place the service on a footing whereby an ambitious or energetic youth might enter it and look forward to a reasonable standard of living, and if he is worthy, of making a decent career for himself. The service is far short of this position at the present time. AFTER TWELVE YEARS' SERVICE.

"There has been some slight improvement in the scale of salaries during the last twelve months, but nothing really to affect the position to the extent that is considered necessary. Prior to this slight improvement, a boy commencing in the service at the age of fourteen and being later, promoted to either career would earn in twelve years £1115, an average of £92 18s 4d a year. Another boy commencing at the same age, and being promoted to telegraphist, would earn £1230 in the same period, or an average of £102 10s a year. So far as can be calculated with any degree of accuracy, and taking Arbitration Court award rates as a basis where possible, these averages are below what are earned in all other" callings where skill and training are required."