SALARIES CUT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11305, 2 September 1922, Page 6

SALARIES CUT

POLICE OFFICERS’ REQUEST. STATEMENT BY~THE MINISTER. In reply to a request from the Public Service Association that the first cut of £lB 15a in thb salaries of police officers should be reduced to £ls, the Minister for Justice (Hon. E. P. Lee) has forwarded the following letter to the Association:— “Referring to the representations made by the deputation from your association that waited upon me on August 17th respecting the recent reductions in pay of members of the Police Force, I beg to inform you that 1 have gone Carefully into the matter, and find til at, when the bonus of £SO was granted to all salaried officers of the Public Service, the non-commis-sioned officers and constables were granted a bonus of 33 a day or £54 15s per year, being £4 15s per year more than the salaried officers got. The first out of Is per day amounted to £lB. ss, as against £ls deducted from the rest of the Public Servioe. This still left the police with £36 10s of the bonus as compared with £35 left to public servants generally. The second cut was fixed at 8d per day, but on : representations being made, it was reduced by the Adjustment Committee to 6d. so that the ,two cuts combined will now amount to £27 7s 6d out of £54 15s per year, or 50 per cent, of the total bonus. Public servents . generally who draw similar salaries (less than £320) will be reduced l £25 out of £SO, which also amounts to 50 per cent. It will thus be seen that, proportionately, the police have been treated exactly in the same manner as the other public servants, arid if the larger bonus granted to them in the first iu-‘ stance (£54 15s) is taken into: consideration, they have heeri' treated, slightly .better, for, as a matter of fact; they still get £27 7s 6d per year of a bonus as' compared with £25 for public servants generally “The deputation asked that the deduction' be made for six days a week, as -in the case of officers in the Defence and Mental Hospitals Departments. I find that in both these departments the total bonus granted did not exceed £SO, so that the oases are not parallel. If what the deputation asked foT wad. approved, the deduction would be as follows:' First cut. Is per day; second cut, Bd,per day, for six days in week, equals 108 per week. The actual deduction, that is being made with the approval of the Adjustment Committee, is: First cut, Is per day; second cut, 6d per day for seven days a week, equals 10s 6d per week so that , will only be 6d leas per week than that asked for. I think the position has been fairly me,t by reducing the second out from 8d to 6d.”