RIGHTS OF PROMOTION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2919, 3 November 1916, Page 5

RIGHTS OF PROMOTION

Sir,—Quito possibly-' others beside myself max draw your attention to an, anomaly in the administration of the Public . Service under present conditions, when the principle of - interchangeability of officers among Departments, so as to utilise there capacities to best advantage, is admitted.

Your, leader of yesterday rightly emphasises this principle ; hut in the. case of the Post and Telegraph Department-, while its meiphers may bo transferred to any other' Department, no member of another Department may be transferred to it.

The plums of that Department are not distributed among the Service generally, though there is no argument in favour of this special teratment of the P. and T. Department,,which cannot be reversed and applied to. any other Department of the Service.

No man is necessarily fit for other Departments becauso ho is in the P. and ! T. Department, but the present rule actuallv makes a man unfit for the P. and T. because he is in another Department; . I think it will interest you to find riut how, this position arose.—l am, etc., _ ■ FAIR, PLAY ALL ROUND. [The facts are as stated in tie foregoing letter. The anomaly exists becauso it is expressly provided for in the.Public Service Act, and is not due to the administration of tho Act by the Public Service Commissioner. When the Bill was before Parliament, a verydetermined effort was made to exclude the Post and Telegraph Department from its operation, but this demand the Government resisted. However, in Clause 48 a veiy important concession was granted to this branch of the Public Service. It means, in effect, thatit is not possible for -an officer of another Department to got promotion by transfer to tile Post and Telegraph Department, but it is possiblo for an officer of the Post and Telegraph Department to obtain promotion by transfer to another Department. The clause is not regarded with by the Public Servico Association. In actual practice, however, it is claimed that tho matter is not of very .great importance, because it could 'seldom' happen that a position of any importance in the Post and Telegraph Servico could be better filled bv an officer from another Department thnji by the promotion of an .officer within tho Department. The practice of the Commissioner in filling vacancies in any Department usually is to promote an officer m the Deoartment concerned if there is a suitable officer who is entitled to promotion.]