POSTAL DISCONTENT.
GRAVE DISSATISFACTION HINTED. AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT. By Telegraph.—rress Association. Wellington, Last Night. A statement made by the secretary, of the Post and Telegraph Officers' Association alleging grave dissatisfaction in the postal section was brought before the secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department. He drew attention to the statement that some l;iO0 appeals against the reclassification of IUI9 had been lodged, and remarked it was strange the Association made no reference to the fact. It issued a misleading circular to all officers of the Association advising them to appeal and giving a sample form of appeal. In that circular reference was made to the alleged promise 16 the Postal and Telegraph Department, which | was shown afterwards before the Appeal Board, and to the admitted satisfaction of the Association's representative, to have been over-stated. That circular stated definitely a promise of £IBO, after a certain period of service, had been made, whereas tiie actual promise was £156, afterwards increased to £lO5.
Many of the appeals lodged obviously originated from misleading information supplied to its officers by the Association. It also omitted to mention that of the 1300 appeals lodged only lourteen were allowed by the Board, while 490 were conceded by the department on an amended scale, following the Government's decjsion to grant a uniform increment of approximately £45 in lieu of a war bonus.
In reference to the cost of living it was a fact that payments to officers showed an increase of 45.8 per cent, over 1914, which was an actual increase per officer of £55.24. The small average amount of the increase- was accounted for by the fact that of 7360 permanent officers 1000 were messenger boys receiving £1 weekly and a large proportion of the balance were cadets, etc.
At no time had the service lost a hundred men monthly, nor a hundred boys monthly, but resignations were common and always would be common in the service where a seventh of the total staff was composed of message boys. Last year the number of officers who loft the service totalled (157, made up as follows: Resignations 50o\ resignations enforced 28, dismissals 125. Of these 204 were messenger boys and 158 juniors receiving less than £2 a week. For the year i'.iet ended the figures were 071/20/77, composed of 288 tnessMigers and 140 juniors.
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Taranaki Daily News, 8 April 1920, Page 5
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388POSTAL DISCONTENT. Taranaki Daily News, 8 April 1920, Page 5
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