A Special Case For Pay Increases

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31087, 16 June 1966, Page 14

A Special Case For Pay Increases

The appeal by air-traffic controllers for higher pay is of such long standing and the demand for their services so insistent that there should be no delay in settling their application now that the Government has the advice of an independent and expert committee. Traffic controllers are not the only highly skilled employees at airports on whom the safe and efficient management of aircraft depends. It has, nevertheless, been clear for some years that their rates of pay have compared unfavourably with their counterparts abroad. The comparison is highly relevant. Competition for the services of controllers is world-wide. The shortage of controllers in New Zealand has been critical for two or three years. The pool of men with the required flying experience appears to be exhausted. The loss of controllers to employers overseas or to airlines as pilots has increased the difficulties of recruitment. The growth in the volume and diversity of air traffic and the upgrading of more airports in New Zealand have enlarged the disparity between the establishment and number of controllers. To increase the burden on the present staff of controllers is no solution, for their job demands high concentration, especially in directing aircraft by radar, and any loss of efficiency through weariness could hardly be contemplated with equanimity. The present pay scale for controllers is inadequate to attract recruits from overseas. An experienced operational controller in Britain earning £2700 a year is unlikely to be interested in a similar job in New Zealand offering—unless penal payments are incurred by overtime and holiday work—only £l7OO.

The Air-Traffic Control Association began preparing its case for better pay and conditions in 1963. It opened negotiations with the State Services Commission in July, 1964, and, at the beginning of 1965 when the work load required of controllers threatened to reach an undesirable level, the expert committee was agreed upon. A substantial pay increase for a special group may not fit tidily into the pattern of increases for public employees. If the committee has found no other means to attract recruits from abroad and to retain controllers here, recognition of the vital skills and scarcity of air-traffic controllers by an appropriate pay rise should be accepted without further delay.