The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, November 24, 1948. PUBLIC SERVICE TRIBUNAL BILL

Grey River Argus, 24 November 1948, Page 6

The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, November 24, 1948. PUBLIC SERVICE TRIBUNAL BILL

the general body of the public servants have the opportunity of learning properly and fully the Government’s side of the'case, it will he found that the attempt of the Nationalist press and politicians to make party capital out of the question of adjusting salary margins and anomalies, is not meant to help the public servants, but meant only to turn them against the Government. The head of their organisation has not represented the public servants prudently or in a conciliatory way. He has instead attempted to dictate, and now appears to be making common cause with the Opposition, whose attitude for the past twelve or thirteen years towards State employees generally has been notoriously hostile. Session alter session have the Nationalists been calling for retrenchment and lamenting the amount of money paid to public servants. Had the Opposition politicians and press their way, one in every five or ten State employees would be given in due course the order of the boot, and as for the remainder, the rank and tile could whistle for the consideration that has always been shown them by the present Administration. The fact is that salaries, wages, and conditions have been bettered in the public service by this Government in far a greater degree than by any previous Government, and before the present agitation began the Opposition were disposed to declare that the consideration shown has been too great, and to affirm, moreover, that the country was being run by the State employees. The Government has often been accused of failing to keep any check on them. Even at this moment, the very press which pretends to take seriously such talk as that the Government has not kept faith with the leaders of the public servants; holds up their agitation itself as being a warning that the members in State employ are exceedingly too many, and that for the sake of cutting down expenditure, they ought to largely cut down in number. The Bill which the Government has brought down enacts the setting up of a Tribunal to settle all of the issues raised, but there is the Ministerial assurance that the leader of the public servants has definitely refused to discuss that Bill. The claim, on the contrary, is that the Association leaders shall dictate terms, and seemingly the National Party, for party ends, pretends to think that attitude reasonable in this instance, whereas the Nationalists had hitherto been forever saying that the Government submitted too readily to each and every demand for wages increases, and thereby sanctioned an inflationary policy. The Nationalist press has always affirmed that the cost of public enterprises is too great, and that those engaged have in a large degree failed to give service in proportion to the outlay. To lend a colour of consistency to their present somersault, they declare that, even though the demands of the public servants may in some respects be open to question, the Government has been only delaying a decision. As a matter of actual fact, the present Bill provides that the Tribunal’s decisions shall, as far as it judges reasonable, be made retrospective; so that in effect there will be no delay in the scope and time of the readjustments. Having encouraged the “stand and deliver’’ attitude on the part of the Association heads, the Nationalist press betrays its duplicity by saying at the same time that the. Association should think of nothing except a verbal agitation for a Government capitulation. The ulterior object of those tactics is as plain as a pikestaff—pure political propaganda. The calculation is that if some spokesmen

meantime can be kept in an attitude of hostility to the Government, they may eventually induce a proportion of the rank and tile to follow their example. It is one thing, however, to encourage that spirit, and quite another to jibe at a large proportion of the Association membership for either joining or remaining in the public service, while at the same time telling all and sundry that in any case the expanded public service can only mean slavery! In other words, the Opposition press does not scruple to urge public servants upon a course which it yet alleges to be utterly illogical. It will ultimately be found that the Government intends giving all of its employees quite as fair and square a deal in future as it has given them in the past. It dar,e not discard its duty to govern, nor accept the insincere suggestion inplied in the Nationalist press that any committee shall be the final arbiter in the matter. It is an unmitigated falsehood to say that the Government has refused to pay its employees fairly, if only because of the fact that the matter has been under negotiation, and that the present Bill is the prelude to finality. When that is reached, it will be for the public servants to compare the result with the best that they could expect from the quarter which regards them as a liability, and/ would welcome the first opporlun- j ity to cut them down with what / is called the axe of economy. ;