PUBLIC SERVICE STILL WANTS A TRIBUNAL FOR WAGE FIXATION

Wanganui Chronicle, 30 April 1949, Page 4

PUBLIC SERVICE STILL WANTS A TRIBUNAL FOR WAGE FIXATION

There was a definite need for the setting up of an impartial tribunal to fix wages and salaries in the Public Service,” said Mr G. H. Sorrell, national vice-president of the New Zealand Public Service Association at last night’s annual meeting of the Wanganui section. The fixation of salaries in the Public Service could not continue in the haphazard manher it had in the past, when salaries were fixed after last ditch stands, bickering, and ill will. What was needed was an impartial tribunal which was impartial, the integrity of which could not be doubted and which was competent to do the job as the job of fixing salaries in the Public Service was a complex matter. The present tribunal, said Mr Sorrel, did not measure up to those standards and was not accentable to the National Executive of the Association. It was fettered in many respects and did not possess the wage fixing powers of the Public Service Commission. “The application for an increase of £22 does not mean that we favour the tribunal but is merely a recognition of the legal position,” said Mr. Sorrell. The best solution was the formation of an overall State Services Tribunal with the requisitions he had previously mentioned and providing the machinery for conciliation and machinery for negotiation with the Government on basic policy matters in the manner in which the Federation of Labour dealt with the Government on basic policy matters. The Government had the power to bring other departments under the scope of the Public Service Tribunal, said Mr. Sorrell, and it was quite likely that they would dq so.