NEW RETIREMENT RULES EXPECTED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 46, 24 February 1931, Page 7

NEW RETIREMENT RULES EXPECTED.

GOVERNMENT SERVANTS ARE NOT SURPRISED.

The adjustments to the retirement regulations of Government servants forecast to-day are not entirely unexpected in the three major branches of the service, nor will they be altogether unpopular. The staffs of the Railway Department have been wondering when some such move would be made. Two years ago the General Manager was known to have a scheme of staff revision under consideration. This scheme was never put into operation, because the Royal Commission brought down another scheme to reduce the number of executive officers. This second scheme was not put into operation either, but last year a number of district traffic managers were retired and not replaced. g The feeling in the railway service is that immediately the financial year ends a comprehensive review of the staffing arrangements will be undertaken, and also that a number of senior officers who have thirty-five or more years’ service to their credit will be asked to retire. Provision already exists for the retirement of railway servants after thirty-five years’ service. The Police Pore©. The Police Force are almost unanimous in their desire to be allowed to retire at the end of thirty-five years* service, but only oil the scale of superannuation they would receive at the end of forty years. The police, like all Government servants, must retire at the age of sixtyfive, irrespective of their length of service. In most departments the age of entrj' is from fourteen to eighteen, consequently, at the end of forty years’ service, an officer is from fifty-four to fifty-eight years of age. In the Police Force the age of entry is from twenty-one to twenty-five, and the consequence is that members of the Police Force are much older men when they reach the retiring age than are members of other branches of the service. They claim that the nature of their duties renders them less ablebodied and efficient at the end of their service. “A Good Thing.” Younger men in the Post and Telegraph Department welcome the foreshadowed change. It will mean that there are far more positions open to them. One officer remarked that the service at present was a dead end. After reaching a certain grade, ambitious men had to be content to stay there, sometimes for years. Throughout the Dominion only one man had been raised to executive rank in one branch of the Department during the last sixteen months. The opinion is that the retirement of some of the older servants will be a very good thing for the service as a whole, as it will give the younger men a much greater incentive to work hard and gain efficiency. (An earlier report appears on page 5.)