SHOAL OF APPEALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23501, 16 May 1938, Page 10

SHOAL OF APPEALS

NEW POSTAL CLASSIFICATION MANY ANOMALIES CREATED DISSATISFACTION IN SERVICE (Special to Daily Times) AUCKLAND, May 15. Intense dissatisfaction exists among many members of the postal section of the Post and Telegraph Department at the salary and grading classifications which were announced early last December and became effective from April 1. Members of the service were given from May 1 to May 11 to make appeals, and it is stated that hundreds of objections have been lodged with the department, including scores from Auckland. The allegedly unsystematic manner in which the classifications have been carried out is the chief cause of complaint. It is contended that many injustices have resulted. For no apparent reason, it is stated, some men have been advanced to higher grades and salaries, whereas numerous others engaged in identical work or who, as in some instances, are occupying more responsible positions, have had no promotion in grade and little or no increase in salary. Senior men in Grade 7, where the maximum salary limitation is £305 a year, are among those who are vigorously protesting against their treatment. Causes of Objection Dissatisfaction also exists in the higher grades, notably in Grade 5, where it is claimed that for no accountable reason a section of men have been given advancement while others with equally onerous duties remain unpromoted. Among those in the higher grades who are lodging objections are postmasters in the smaller centres and assistant supervisors. The varying sizes of the salary increases are another factor which members of the service find difficult to exolain. Again, some officers state that the Government has not fulfilled its promise to restore salaries to at least the pre-depression rates. Question of Back Pay Further, it is claimed that the department promised that the recent salary classification would be made retrospective to April 1, 1937, and that back pay would be given. Many have certainly received this back pay, but there are numerous other instances in which not a penny has been received. “ We cannot understand the new classification at all, and hundreds of men are dissatisfied,” said an officer of the service. “There appears to be no method whatever in the manner it has been carried out, and shoals of appeals have gone forward.”