CUTTING DOWN STAFFS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17872, 29 August 1921, Page 4

CUTTING DOWN STAFFS.

THE CIVIL SERVICE.

RETIREMENT NOTICES. FURTHER REDUCTIONS LIKELY. [BT TELEGEArH. OWN COBRESPONTSENT.] WELLINGTON. Saturday. As was staled yesterday, some perturbation has* been caused in Civil Service circles by the issue of notices of retirement or dismissal to a number of employees on the permanent list. Several departments are affected.

No exception is taken to the retirement of men who are eligible for superannuation. The Civil Service organisations, in fact, have been urging that men should not be kept in the service when they have reached the retiring age, or became eligible for superannuation. But the dismissal of permanent hands whose service is incomplete has boen a rare event in the departments for many ye.ar?. The dismissals and retirements are part of the policy of retrenchment that is being forced upon the Government, and it appears that in some of the departments the strength of the staffs must be further reduced. The movement would have begun some months ago had not the Cabinet decided, as announced at the time, that men should not be dismissed from the public service during the winter months, when the unemployment difficulty seemed likely to become acute. Salaries are not the only form of ex penditure that is receiving attention at the present time. There is a. general tightening of the purse strings in regard to such matters as travelling and use of motor-cars. Some schemes of a farreaching kind involving the amalgamation of certain branches and departments are receiving consideration.