CITIZENS FIRST.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18630, 7 May 1932, Page 6

CITIZENS FIRST.

POSTAL EMPLOYEES.

PRESIDENT INTERVIEWED. REPLY TO PREMIER AND PRESS. Mr W. P. Kent-Johnston, president of the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Employees’ Association, in an interview to-day, stated that from recent press comment it might be inferred that certain sections of the Public Service, and the officers of the Post and Telegraph Department in particular, were disloyal. Nothing could be further from the truth. The service was intensely loyal to the State and to the citizens comprising it, and this was a higher form of loyalty than blind party allegiance. if the emergency arose that loyalty would be proved as in the past. Specially Singled Out.

Mr Kent-Johnston went on to say: “The service, however, considered it had been singled out for special taxation by way of salary reductions. Two cuts of 10 per cent, each and the wage cut of 5 per cent., made an inroad of one-quarter into the gross salaries of State servants, reducing them below the 1914 actual salary level, and far below that level measured in terms of real wages. Contrast this with other salary reductions, notably those of prominent local bodies, which exempted varying amounts in the interests of the lower-paid ranks, tho most striking examples being those of recent date, where reductions were proposed only above the £370 mark. “ Sixty per cent., over 30,000 of the whole of the Public Service, now receives a gross maximum salary of less than £206 per annum, or, when superannuation dues and wage tax have been paid, £3 9s per week, irrespective of length of service, and official or domestic responsibilities. “ The service labours under the disability that while the Government Is Its employer, it is also its judge and arbitrator in any dispute. With this in view my association has been endeavouring for some years to se'cure the divorcement of the administration of the service from party political control.

“It Is significant that tho Police are to receive a new " overtime payment,” which will have the effect of affording thorn practical exemption from the recent salary cut. Is this a reward for loyalty or Is It occasioned by the necessity for retaining that loyalty In the special circumstances of tho moment? Overtime .payment In the Post and Telegraph Department has been abolished despite the salary cuts of 1931 and 1932, but the decision had been loyally received by the lower-paid men most affected. The Interview Incident. “ The Prime Minister has inferred in the House that the general secretary of the Post and Telegraph Employees’ Association had made a belated attempt to se'cure an interview with him to advance our proposals in February last. The actual ' fact is that I personally waited in Wellington over ten days for that purpose, but without success, nad it was only after tho publication of those proposals in the Wellington Dominion, accompanied by an editorial expression of regret that State servants should have been denied the right of access to. their employer, that 'the Prime Minister arranged an interview. “ Despite the gagging of the service by a portion of the special clause •to be added to the Finance Bill, the service, both collectively and individually, will continue to exert a maximum endeavour by all fair and legitimate means, in the attempt to secure the economic betterment of its members and of the general community.

" As previously stated to the Prime Minister we are citizens first and publlo servants afterwards.”