PUBLIC SERVANTS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 290, 5 September 1942, Page 8

PUBLIC SERVANTS

Conditions Said To Be Intolerable GOVERNMENT CRITICIZED “In last issue we stated very plainly the intolerable position created by the Government because of its failure to determine our claims for improved overtime rates and conditions,” states, the editorial in the September issue of “The Public Service Journal. “Months have passed since hours were compulsorily increased in some departments, while in others staff shortages and volume of work have compelled the remaining staff to work long hours of overtime. It took the Government seven months to grant an interview, even to discuss our claims, to the central committee of the Combined Services Organization. That interview took place on the eve of the Prime Minister’s visit to Australia. He undertook promptly to place the whole question before his colleagues, but weeks have gone by without any decision. , _ “This, then, is- the attitude of the Government toward its own employees —a Government that when confronted with industrial unrest ambng outside employees, has shown akin to tender sensitiveness toward the grievances or the .workers, and has gone out of its way to speed up amicable adjustment between employer and employee. We should record, however, our belief tha. the Prime Minister is anxious to reach a settlement though each week that passes without result renders it more difficult to impress the fact upon our restive members. “The feeling of dissatisfaction has developed extensively during the past fortnight because of the fact that every department in the Public Service has been declared an essential industry Can one imagine a more extraordlnarv freak of administration—a service‘bound practically hand and foot to their jobs and yet left in the air as to conditions. The Government, as a self-respecting employer, should not permit of further delay in its decision. . . “Because of war conditions all the service organizations have exercised more than due restraint in pressing their claims. Nevertheless, they are doggedly determined to see that justice is done to their members.”