OVER-STAFFED

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3183, 28 May 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

OVER-STAFFED

CIVIL SERVICE IN FRANCE. France has often been called the country of the small “ functionaire,” but the figures quoted by the Minister of Finance shoA\ r that the civil servant has become more numerous than ever. There were 617,000 of him in 1914. The number is now 715,000, and this includes neither those employed in municipal services nor the soldiers and sailoi-s, though it does include the elementary school teachers. These civil servants, though they are technically neutral in politics, are nearly all keen politicians; and the result is that they can bring a good deal of pressure to bear to secure generous treatment. According to British standards, they are absurdly ill-paid, to be sure, but they are entitled to pensions Avhich are good in comparison Avith their salaries, and they are demanding that they shall be made better still. The Minister pointed out that the automatic deductions, which are made from the pay of a functionaire and credited' to his pension fund, bring him an annuity, at the age of fiftyfive years, which is nearly three times as much as he could have obtained by making the same payments at ordinary insurance rates.