PUBLIC SERVICE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10296, 3 June 1919, Page 2

PUBLIC SERVICE

NEW CLASSIFICATION BASIS OF SALARIES AND INCREMENTS. It is reported in connection with thv now Pubau Sei vice class.ticution that it is likeiv to be completed by the end 01 the present month. Un being interviewed on tuo subject yesteruuy, the 1-übiu Service Commissioner stalea that so fur no portion of cue proposed classification as aiKxtmg tne Public Service umter the e-ommisaioner's control has been disclosed. X'lougn notuiug ouu be said aa to the treatment of mtuviauai cases, tUe geiierai principles .. governing regrading are known. The new scale of salaries and increments for tue o.erioal division nus been gazetted. It replaces that contained in the thud schedule of the Public Service Act, 1912. and summarised affords tuo folowing comparison;— NEW SCALE.

Special Class (new), A 660 to JJ7SO, two increments of <£so. Class 1., A'559 to .£6OO. one increment. Class If.. J 1475 to £SOO. one increment. Class IXI.. ,£425 to £450, oue increment.

Class IV.. £375 to £490, one increment.

Class V.. £315 to £350. one increment of £ls and one of £2O.

Class VT., £240 to £3OO, three increments of £2O.

Class VII.. £65 to £95, by increments of £ls. thereafter to £IBO by increments of £25, £2O, £25, £ls to £180; thereafter to £270 bv increments of £2O; with efficiency bars at £IBO and £230. OLD SCAALB.

Class 1., £SOO to £6OO. two increments ot £2o ami one of £SO.

Class 11., £4lO to £-170. one increment of £2O and one of £ls.

Class 111.. £385 to £423, two increments of £2O.

Class IV.. £330 to £370, two increments of £l3 and one of £lO. Class V.. £275 to £315, two increments of £ls and one of £lO. Class VI,, £320 to £260, four increments of £ls.

Class VII.. £l2O to £230. four increments of £ls and four of £lO. with efficiency bars at £165 and £2OO. Class All!., £SO to £llO. four increments of £ls. PRINCIPLES ADOPTED.

The principles governing the fixing of scaies ivcic exp.a*ned to a -deputation from the fuouc Service Association recently. Ihe deputation biought under tne notice of the Commissioners a statement' by Mr It. vv. Me v lily ttieueral Manager lor Hallways} regarding salaries tor tne first division of tno Hallways 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 tne increased cost of living, is in fact promotion, or that it carries with it promotion to a higher grade. Members will bo considered for promotion to the higher grades on the basis of merit, suitability, and efficiency. . . . The war bonus will be added to the salaries of the officers, and, after that, promotion will bo purely on the basis of efficiency. If a man is a good officer, and after tho £45 has been added, JS> is required to bring him up to the new scale, ho.-.tviU--"get ”fchat,'vfoo’." It is solely, on that ..ground. that ,we ~haye .decided' to mate* the X 43 war bonus applicable to all salaries as a start." The Commissioner said; "That ifi practically very much what we are doing; only wo did not arrive at the 1115 by way of war bonus at all. We arrived at tile Mis after making most exhaustive inquiries mu, Ui«. cost o I living. W e-determined first what the cost of living was in 1914, and what it was on April Ist, 1919. after taking evidence from Mr Fraser. Thin wo took a basic wage-—we were working Alien on the 'General Division— ’ 0 f £165, , and,, wp found that the increase in the cost of living, as given to us by Mr Fraser, made .. so near £45 that we took that as qur 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, U practically being done on the same basis, only in some cases some get £sll and others get .£6O, to bring them on to a step as nearly as wo could. To tho .£260 to £3OO men we have had to give .£4O, but some of the men in the old seventh class get .£3O, and some ,£6O. You cannot work it exactly foi all of them. That is the broad pnnciple. . . Wliav we have done is to put .£45 on to tiro minimum and £43 on to the maximum as compared with 1914. The same principle is being applied to the clerical division, with the exception that the clerical division are better off, because in most oases they seem, to get more than £45. But, in regard to the men at £2ta), we cannot give them more than ,£4O, because their uevv maximum is .£3oo.’’

The Cabinet recently approved of a principle that tho scales should be the same for the three divisions and the service now under different control—tho Hallways, the Post and Telegraph, and the General Service. The classification will be different to meet the differing needs, but tho idea is that men doing work of substantially the same value shall be equally treated in all sections. In addition to the clerical scale tot the Public Service, there are scales tor the professional and general divisions The protesoionar seals w ill probably not be altered, as it is wide enough to admit of improvement 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 year by the Commisaiouei, anti is not fixed by statute, as are the other scales.