POSTAL EMPLOYEES

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1930, Page 4

POSTAL EMPLOYEES

SALA RLE S■A N D STAT US. SOME INCREASES PROVIDED. The question of salaries iu the Post and Telegraph. Department is discussed by the Postmaster-General, the Hon. J. B. Donald, in the annual report of the department, which was presented to Parliament on Thursday. •‘“Representations were made to the Government during the year in support of the desire of officers, as expressed by their organisation, for improved salary conditions, and no one regrets more than I do that the financial state of the country was such that the Government could not go as.far as they would-like to have done to increase salaries,” says Mr. Donald. “It must be remembered in dealing with such requests that one body of public servants cannot, in the absence of very different conditions of work, be accorded preferential treatment, and that any increase given in the case of Post and Telegraph workers must also be given in the case of public servants generally. To have met the requests which were made and to have applied the increases to the whole of the Public* Service would, it is estimated, have involved an additional cost for salaries of approximately £1,000,060 a year, a prospective increase in expenditure which could not possibly be faced. “It was clear, however, that some relief had. to be accorded to the large group of officers at the head of the seventh class in the clerical division, and arrangements were made by which 217 qualified and efficient officers from this group were advanced from £295 per annum to the next class at a salary of £320 per annum. The Government also directed that an inquiry be instituted into the rates of pay of officers of the .general division, and as a result of this inquiry the Government decided on a new salary schedule for this division, to operate from April, 1930. The new schedule provides for officers receiving, when they reach manhood, a salary more in keeping with that estate. The regrading of the service which is required by law to be undertaken every five years, was carried out during the year. In addition to the bettering of the salary and status of the 217 officers referred to previously, 241 positions were regraded and .182 new positions were created above the rank and file of the clerical and the general divisions. “It is. the department’s policy to appoint to the permanent staff, rather than to retain in a. temporary capacity, any employees whose services are likely to be required permanently, and who are eligible for permanent appointment. Owing to the. great growth in telephone development is has been difficult during the last few years to arrive at a proper basis for making such appointments, but following an extensive review of the position arrangements- were made for 139 workers on the casual construction and maintenance staff of the department to be given permanent status from April, 1930. Iu addition, 90 female employees on the temporary staff were appointed to the permanent staff during the year.”