WAR BONUS OF £102.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17459, 1 May 1920, Page 6

WAR BONUS OF £102.

CLAIM BY PUBLIC SERVICE. f PRE-WAR WAGES WANTED. 1 INCREASE OF 62 PER CENT. I [bt telegraph.—press association-.] WELLINGTON. Friday. A statement regarding the salary claims of employees in the Public Sen ice was made to-day by Mr. F. W. Miliar, general secretary of the Public Service Association, which comprises all the Government departments (including the police force* other than the Post Office and Railways Departments. "An adequate cost-of-living increase ;, our paramount need," said Mr. Millar "Shortly, our claim is that we shoulc receive an increase of 64 per cent, on tin pre-war basic wage, which was assesser! b/ the Public Sen-ice Commissioners, when reviewing our service on April, 1, 1919, at £165 per annum. The percentage of in. crease quoted is that which the Government announced through the Board of Trade as the cost-of-living increase. In both cases we are taking the Government's own figures, and if our claims are granted the increase in the salaries of all adult officers will be £102 per annum, whether the salaries are £1000 per annum or onlv £200 per annum. We recognise in the event of the cost of living decreasing tint our salaries should be readjusted wordingly, and we have given our uoidertakii as an organisation to the Prime Minister that we are prepared to accept a reasonable decrease on any improvement made in our present salaries over and abors our existing classified salrries." Here Mr. Millar explained that the service was content to leave it to the Public Service Commissioner to asses? th.> value of specific positions in the Pull - .- Service, as each individual had the right of appeal. But the Public Service Commissioner was bound to the salary scale introduced in April, 1919, which provided in the cases of tie lower-salaried officers for improvements in the scale hitherto existing for the cost-of-living increase— assessed according to the Public Ser-*ire Commissioner's published statement at, roughly, 27£ per cent, on a basic wage of £165 per annum, or £45 per annum. "The service is utterly dissatisfied with the Government's failure to recognise the position," be continued, "and it is not going to rest until relief is granted. Throughout the Prime Minister and other members of the Cabinet have maintained that what one section of tha service is granted others must he granted. As a consequence it wee decided to extend to us, as from January 1, 1920, the war bonus recommended by Mr. Justice Stringer for railway employees, and our dissatisfaction ia no less than theirs. To make matter: worse, the war bonus stated to have b6en extended to us also has not loomed large on the Cabinet's horizon since the general election.

"Summarised, our position is this The average cos*-»of-livmg increases granted to the Public Service have been a.5 follows :— Officers receiving salaries up to £400 per annum were granted a bonus of £45 as frcm April 1, 1919, and another of £15, as from January 1, 192): officers with' salaries from £400 to £500 have received bonuses of £25 and £15; officers with salaries of over £500 received one bonus of £25. The increase in the cost of living ha? been 62 per cent., or £102 on ;he prewar basic wage of £165 per annuel. "At present, in spite of the general prosperity, many of our lower-paid members have been compelled to reduce their pre-war standard of living to enable them to keep from running too deeply into debt and there is cor.siderable bitterness at the failure of the Government <-> recognise die position and to gr-.mt the relief which it has assisted in securing lor private employees who have been engaged in the same struggle. We are at present pressing merely for such increases as will place public servants' salaries on the pre-war purchasing b\sis."