NEW SCALES

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 128, 2 June 1919, Page 8

NEW SCALES

PUBLIC SERVICE SALARIES

THE BASIS OF PAYMENT

Statements have been current that cciv tain Departments and individuals in the Public Service have been acquainted with, their new classification. On inquii-y at the Public Service Commissioner's office to-day a Post reporter was informed that this was incorrect. No portion of the proposed classification as affecting the Public Service under the Commissioner's control has been disclosed. It is hoped to complete the classification by the endof June, but no definite promise can be given as to the exact, date: In. the meantime, though nothing can be said as to the treatment of individual cases, the general principles governing re.grading.are known. .The hew scale of salaries and increments for the clerical division has been gazetted. It-replaces that contained in the third schedule of the Public Service Act, 1912, and summarised affords the following comparison:— NEW SCALE. Special Class (new), £650 to £750, two increments of £50. Class 1., £53) to £600, one increment. Class 11., £475 to £500, one increment. Class 111., £425 to £450, one increment. Class IV., £375 to £400, one increment. ■ ■ ■ ! Class V., £315 to £350, one increment of £15 and one of £20. Class VI., £240 to £300, three mere-, j mcnts of £20. Class VII., £65 to £95, by increments of £15, thereafter to £180 'by increments of £25, £20, £25, £15 to, £180; thereafter to £270 by increments of £20: with efficiency bars at £180 and £220. OLD SCALE. Class 1., £500 to £600, two increments of £25 and one of £50. Class 11., £440 to £470, one increment of £20 and one of £15. Class 111., £385 to £425, -two increments of £20. Class IV., £330 to £370, two increments of £15 and one of £10. Class'V., £275 to £315,. two increments of £15 and one of £10. Class VI., £200 to £200, four increments of £15. Class VII., £120 to £220, four increments of £15 and four of £10, with efficiency bars at £165 and £200. Class VIII., £50 to £110, four increments of £15. THE COMMISSIONER'S EXPLANATION The principles governing the fixing of scales were explained to a - deputation from the Public Service Association recently. _ The deputation brought under the notice of the Commissioners a statement by Mr. E... AY. M'Villy (General Manager for Railways) regarding salaries for the first • division of tho Railways Department as follows : '"It is the intention of the Department to add to the salary of the men in the Service at the present time, £45. That is the maximum war bonus received now in the ninth grade. That amount Will, as an initial step, be added to the pay of all members on the D.—3. It must not be taken by the members of the Institute that this £45, which,. after all is said. , and done, is merely some compensation for the increased cost of living, is in fact promotion, or that it carries with it promotion to a higher grade. Members will be considered for promotion to the higher grades,on,.the basis of- merit,, suitability, and efficiency. : 7' .The war bonus will be-added to the salaries of the officers, and,- after' that, promotion wilk.be purely on the, basis of efficiency. If a-man.is'a good officer, and, after the £45 has been added, £5 is required to bring him up to the new scale, he will get that, too. It is solely on that ground that-we have decided to make the £45 war bonus applicable to all salaries as a start." The Commissioner said: "That is practically very much what we are doing: only we did not arrive at the £45 by way of ,war bonus at all. We arrived at the £45 after making most exhaustive inquiries into the cost of living. We determined first what the cost of living was in 1914, and what it was on the Ist April, 1919, after taking evidence from Mr. Fraser. Then we took a basic .wage—we were working then on the General Division—of £165, and wd found that the increase in the cost of living, as given to us by Mr. Erase)-, made it so near £45 that we took that as our standard ; so we have arrived at it on an entirely independent basis. We have taken the 1914, scale, and added £45 to the minimum and £45 to the, maximum. With it apparently they are all satisfied^ The Clerical Division, of course, is practically being done on the same basis, only in some cases some get £50 and others get £60, to bring them on to a step as nearly as we could. , To the £260 to £300 men we have had to give £40, but some of the men in tho old seventh class get £50, and some £60. You, cannot work1 it exactly for all of them. That is the broad principle. . . . What we have dose is to put £45 on to the minimum and £45 on to the maximum as compared with 1914. The same principle is being applied to the clerical division, with tho exception that the clerical division aro better off,' because in most, cases they seem to get' more than £45. But, in regard to the men at £260, we cannot give them more than £40, because their new maximum is £300." It may be explained, in reference to this-statement that Cabinet recently approved of a principle that the scales should be the same for the three divisions and the service now under different control—the Railways, the Post and Telegraph, and the General Service: Tho classification will be different to meet the differing needs, but the idea is that men doing work of substantially the same value shall be equally treated in all sections. In addition to the clerical scale for the Public Service, there are scales for^the professional and general divisions. The professional-scale will probably not be altered, as it is wide enough to admit !.of improvemeut for the men within it. The General Division scale, covering all kinds of employees whose work is not clerical, may be altered from year to rear by the Commissioner, and is not fixed by statute, as are the other scales.