COST OF LIVING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 16, 13 October 1944, Page 3

COST OF LIVING

UNDER PAID PUBLIC SERVANTS STATEMENT BY ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT "Public servants throughout the Dominion, especially those in lowerpaid groups 4 are 1 very concerned at the .in-creasing cost of living/' said Mr A. 11. o'Kee.fe i the President of the Public Service Association ■9 in issuing a sntement in regard to a comprehensive report on the cost of living recently approved lay liis. Executive. A special sub-eomniitte.ee has been working on this report for some months, and has collected budgets. from various groups of public servants. "The increase in the cost of living has weighed very heavily o;i public the statement continues ? "because thc'ir salary scales have not materially improved in over twenty years—in fact the. scales for the clerical and professional divisions, as in the case of those for the secondary school teachers—have not even been restored to the 1920 le.vel. On the other hand the rates of pay of other workers nave been raised repeatedly during that period. "The Association's report would have been facilitated if the, basis of the Government Statistician's indices could have been but this information could not be obtained. It was. therefore, necessory to draw on other sources such as the evidence, tendered to the Arbitration Court when fixing the basic' wage, budgets obtained from public servants etc. <r "The report covers six printed pages., and it is therefore not possible. to set out 'ill brieif form lllhp figures on which the report's recommendations are based but the i figures make it clear that the lowerpaid public servants, are obliged to accept a, lower standard -of living than the basic working class standard outside the service and that in many cases, even on this lower standard the "lower-paids" cannot make ends, meet without the assistance. of overtime work 011 the waterfront and other such means of supplementing their income,. "The existing cost of living bonuses with limited scope are not. a satisfactory remedy as far as public servants are concerned, and the Association's report makes a strong case, for a revised salary scale as the only real solution. It is important -to remember that at least three out of every four public servants are in the lower paid groups." Mr O'Keefe concluded b.y quoting the recommendations in the which arc as follows: — Short Term :

"Adoption by Government of the ]94.'i Conference resolutions "ould provide, a measure 'of relief for the time being and wc re-state them us short-term objectives: (a) That payment of both cost of living' bonuses be, extended to all officers. (b) That the cost of living allowance for cadets and female employees under 18 "who are living at home be increased to £13 per annum. (c) That an allowance be paid to all public servants on the same basis as the allowance (equivalent to 1 /(> per day paid to mine workers) now approved for members of the Mines Department stall'. (d) That a basic minimum salary of £280 per annum be paid to adult males in the public service. Long Term : In our view the only satisfactory solution is, a revised salary and we therefore, recommend: (a) That the AS'SociaKon press for an .improved salary scale involving an increase in the Class VTt maximum to as a cardinal feature. (b) That the lodging allowances for cadets living away from home be increase,d so that these officers will be self-supporting from the commencement of their service. (c) That Government be requested to broaden the basis of the All Groups Index to include all the omitted items which prevent it from being a true reilex of the co&t of living. (d) That Government be asked to authorise, the Statistician to disclose the data on which the Index is compiled so that the Association 1 2 '9 , among nvay at all times base its claims on oifi'cial Figures."