LABOUR DISPLACEMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22643, 3 February 1937, Page 15

LABOUR DISPLACEMENT

POST OFFICE PROBLEM INTRODUCTION OF MACHINES With the Installation of automatic telephones, the introduction of adding and arithmetic machines and the replacement of the original morse system of telegraphy by the teleprinter, the problem of displacement of the individual by tho machine is constantly being faced by the Post Office in Now Zealand, lii introducing labour-saving devices designed to afford quicker service, the department claims to have painlessly solved the human problem involved by looking ahead in staff organisation. It is stated that an expanding business has assisted the department in this task and where any manual telephone exchange has been displaced there has been no hardship to the individual. An automatic telephone exchange involves tho ordering of intricate equipment from overseas, so that the Post Office has ample time to consider the future of operators who will be displaced. A carefully planned series of transfers takes up the surplus staff caused by the "cut-over." An automatic exchange still requires its manual operators for handling toll calls, dealing with requests for information and the rural subscribers' lines which arc connected to the central exchange and the installation and maintenance of delicate and complex apparatus involves a substantial increase in the skilled staff. In the case of two large exchanges converted from manual to automatic operation within recent years, the actual figures relating to displacement of human labour are regarded as significant. Before the "cut-over" the operating staff in one instance totalled 135, and when the automatic system had been installed it was still necessarv to retain 41 operators and to make a big addition to the staff of telephone mechanicians, wlych was increased to 52. In the second case, where tin; original staff was 92, there were 22 operators retained under tho automatic system, and they were reinforced with 36 telephone mechanicians.