Curtail Employment In State Services

Chronicle (Levin), 18 March 1948, Page 7

Curtail Employment In State Services

DUNEDIN, Marcli 17. An ajipeal that employment in State services be curtailed rather than expanded, partieularly during the present acute shortage of' labour and materiais, was made by Mr. F, Wilson (Wellington) !at thi8 moning's session of the Assqciated Ohamber.of Connnerce Con ference. Delcgates v.con'tended that" staffing in the Stat,e? >departments ' Svas generaily too large,_ and \ indust-ry was suffering as a result iu being? unable tp obtain enough. eperatives. It wfas ' d'ecided to press the jinatter -with,. the. Goyernment. ' During the last 10, ypars the civil ser-" viee had inereas'ed by niore thau 75. per cent., said Mr. Wilsoii. It should be made perfeetly cleari that-wltat waa sugg'ested- was not retrencbment and un employment but .simply a redistribU'tion of labour andrai'return of workers to production employment.: Such transfer would not Impair the effective operations of the State administration and the revenue-producing services provid ed the re-distribution was effected in those departments representing activities outside the normal and recognised scope of democratie government. Supporting the motion Mr. E. J. Phillips (Hastings) said State services onlv too frequently sustained them selves whollv at the expense of private enterprise. They required complete protection againsi opposition and recourse to the Consolidated Fund. Such a position, he contended,, was 'eompletely un heallhy and unfair, When some delegates suggested. t"hat the term "State services" was ' too vague, it was asserted by Mr. M. C. Q. McCaul (Wellington) that it" would' be unwis^'to be too speciflc. -It would be better to recqmmend that the greatly swollen nuuiber of civil servants be re-:. duced. "We might later request the setting up of a - cpmmissiom vto give recommendations, he said-. "What we want to . stop is men — grown men— wandering round departments with flies of papers in their hands and stopping to talk to girls in the eorridors, " said Mr. J. T. Martin (Wellington). What was wanted-was a readjustment of State employed personnel rather than a re-direction.