RETIRING AGE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20096, 27 November 1930, Page 5

RETIRING AGE.

! hospital board servants

i Recommendation adopted. : -1- ifiy-t(_s c years i'or • women and~6£» ; tor men we're the ages fixed on-by-, the I -* sT ° r th Canterbury Hospital..Boar*]' yesj terdjiy as the time at which its.ser- | vunts should automatically retire o'n. j superannuation, unless the--Board dej sired to retain' their" services -aiid they j v - ero willing to continue.' Such ex- | tensions would be for fixed periods. | . ? '-° clause in the Finance LcmmiUp.o j, report, recommending this | e: .me bet or* tho Board, Airs. fc. MeI l \ uso to protest a&amst fifty-five being adopted ;-s the retiring age for women, io insist on their retirement at thn_t age, was, she claimed, placing a distinct Hardship on many of them. Neither thn- Government nor the National Provident superannuation schemes compoLled > retirement at fiftyfive. At least two members of the I< usance Committee made no secret of tiie iact that they- were over 70 years of age. Would either of them admix that they were incompetent to carry on the business of the Board f ' Better Salaries Needed. < [r women employees of the Board ; were to bo mad-,« to give up their work at t.iis age, their salaries must be adequate to allow them to do it. She contended that a matron with -100 bods and-200 nurses to. look after was r.ut being paid any. more than a clerk m a decent olfi.ee "It is ridiculous to suggest that a woman at 55 is past her work," she added. 'T know that gentlemen prefer 'sweet young things,' hut wo have, m this hospital, the kind of work that needs women of mature judgment " Not Compulsion. Thu chairman (Mr H.J. Otley): AVc are not insisting that every woman shall give up her work at 55; each case, with both men and women, shall U' dealt with on its merits. The Act, not the Board, fixes the ago for retirement, hat, if a servant is ieadv and capable io go on, ho or she wiil bo able to do so. Mr Will iam Anderson asked Mrs McCoinbs whether she thought it was the opinio ii of tho Board that it should continue to employ people over the statutory age in an institution de- | signed to give tho most modern treatment. when there might bo younger and brighter members who were more up-to-date and who could give the advantages of more- modern treatment. Doctor's Opinion. Dr. P. totan'ev Foster thought that it was obviously in the interests of tho Board that ;t should define an age for retiring its employees; otherwise there was a danger ol the institution being run by those who wero obviously past their best. Special cases I could bo reviewed. At the same time lie thoroughly agreed with Mrs Mc- i Combs that the salaries of the nursing stalls should bo improved as soon as possible. Mr Otlev: You will notice that superannuation is available to a woman ten years sooner than to a man. If an officer were capable he would doubtless bo kept on ; but, if ho were not. iie certainly should not be. This hospital is not run for anyone except the sick. Officers to Come Under Review. Mr J. S.. Harnett; If the clause were altered so as to deprive women of the right to retire at- tho age of 55, it would be placing them at a grave disadvantage, for many are anxious to go out of office at, the t.-ijfl of their term, cither into retirement or into another occupation. An amei:dnv.-;tit- by- Mrs-McCombs to have the clause referred back" to the Financ-o Committee was lost and the clause adopted, the chairman remarking that thu Board's officers would come under review as they reached the age set out as'tho retiring age. Some of them, ho pointed out, had not joined the superannuation scheme; but their positions, too," would have tc he reviewed.