Public servants’ wages system to be reviewed

Press, 15 February 1986, Page 1

Public servants’ wages system to be reviewed

By

MARTIN FREETH

in Wellington

The wage-fixing system for public servants will be reviewed in an apparent step by the Government to avoid a repetition of the high settlements and industrial disputes in the present State pay round.

The review will include the role of the Higher Salaries Commission, which has taken much of the blame for high public and private sector settlements after handing down increases of up to 39 per cent for politicians and top public servants last September. The Government has already made provision for legislation to amend the commission’s act in this year’s Parliamentary programme, perhaps by the addition of new criteria it must take into account when handing down future salary determinations.

The Minister of State Services, Mr Rodger, said yesterday a consultative committee, to include representatives from the Combined State Unions, would review the principles and procedures governing public sector pay fixing and would report by July. Mr Rodger said "recent experiences” working within the present system

indicated "there may be grounds for considering changes.” The committee will have broad terms of reference Including the need for greater flexibility in pay-fixing to respond to changing circumstances, the organisational machinery involved and the procedures for public sector corporations and local authorities. The announcement of the review had a lukewarm reception from the Combined State Unions, which has had informal talks with Government officials about change in the system.

“We are keen to identify the problems that the Government might discern in the existing wage legislation and having done that in seeing if they can be met in any reasonable way,” said the C.S.U.’s general secretary, Mr Barry Tucker. He pointed to a need for greater flexibility in pay-fixing to meet problems of staff loss in the

Public Service. Labour Department figures show full-time staff in the Public Service fell 2070 to 138,145 in the period from August, 1982, to August, 1985.

Mr Tucker said the C.S.U. saw the review as no more than an examination of the present system. Next week, the Government will name two new appointees to the Higher Salaries Commission, to replace members who resigned last year.

No decisions have been taken on the timing of the commission’s next general determination, but it is unlikely for at least another 18 months. Settlements so far finalised for some occupational groups indicate a general public sector pay movement of about 20 per cent

The Government has indicated that increase will push up expenditure this fiscal year past earlier estimates, although it will not release figures on the extra cost it faces because

of the level of settlements. The Opposition’s spokesman on industrial relations, Mr Birch, yesterday challenged Mr Rodger to produce the figures, alleging the State sector now leads the private sector in wage settlements. Mr Birch accused the Government of a “gutless and inept stand” in the face of last year’s salaries determination by the commission which it had admitted from the start would fuel the pay round.

The Government should have legislated against the determination, instead of just criticising the commission, he said. The need for a review of the commission’s role and payfixing in general came as no surprise, Mr Birch said.

Mr Rodger said the review committee’s report would be released as a discussion document and public consultation would occur before any recommendations were adopted by the Government.