THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 256, 28 October 1931, Page 5

THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Arbitration System Favoured. POSTAL OFFICERS’ WAGES. There is need to get away from political control,” declared Mr C. J. Smeaton, assistant Dominion Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department’s Employees’ Association, speaking at the annual reunion last night. He indicated that officers of the Department would make application to have the question of determining their salaries placed outside political control. Mr Smeaton said that he was surprised to see in their official journal that a member had expressed the opinion that they were philosophically inclined towards the cut. He wished to give an emphatic denial to that. If the Prime Minister had reduced the cost of living he thought that the cut would have been viewed with less outraged feeling. A Severe Cut. The civil service, said the speaker, had been in a parlous state for some time. In 1921-22 there was a severe cut. If they had been under the arbitration system in comparison it would have been a minor one. In the prosperous times from 1923 to 1928 the civil servants were left out in the cold. The association was going through a period of depression, but that was not going to last forever. At present it was impossible to make any progress, because things were bad both in and out of the service. Referring again to the question of salaries, Mr Smeaton said that if the clerical staff had been paid the equivalent of 1914 salaries they would be getting £320 per annum instead of £265 10s. That meant that since 1914 they had been under-paid by £931, and officers of the general division were worse off. That could be expected as long as salaries were controlled politically. Few realised that SO per cent of civil servants received less than £2Bl per annum and 97 per cent less than £450. Proposals Formulated. The chairman (Mr A. Robertson) appealed to members to bring forward not only their complaints, but also ideas for the betterment of the service. The executive had proposals formulated and in the near future members would be asked to vote on them. On behalf of the executive he could only ask for support. The association intended to take steps to see that an inquiry was made into the cause of the depression.