ORGANISATION AND THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1921, Page 11

ORGANISATION AND THE CIVIL SERVICE.

SHOULD LABOR OR EMPLOYERS CONTROL? There has come to the surface recently manifestations of a movement in the direction of interference from outside with the civil service of our. Dominion t'hat demands very serious thought. We have seen that an endeavor is being made to link up the civil service organisations, such as the Post and Telegraph Association, with an outside body named the Alliance of Labor. Now, whilst we entirely agree that the employees of the State should have a right to organise for the proper presentation and protection of their collective interests, we must emphatically protest against alliance of any kind with a private organisation not connected with the public service. It matters not whether it is an employers’ federation, chamber of commerce, alliance of labor, farmers' L'nion, or any other sectional organisation, our opinion is that none of them should be in alliance with any other branch of the civil service. Human nature is human nature, and no reasonable minded person will fail to realise that if the employees in our Postal, Lands, Treasury or other Government Departments became joined up with any outside industrial organisation they must become involved and take part in private industrial disputes, either directly or indirectly. Whether contemplated or not the inevitable result of alliance with an outside industrial body would be that such sectional organisation would come to have a measure of control over the State Department, not shared in by the remainder of the public. We believe that the great mass of civil servants in all departments will recognise the danger and evils attaching to the principle of such alliance. It would mean in time that these employees of the State would in addition to serving the public interest, be called upon to serve sectional and class interests, which might at times conflict with those of the public. The Post and Telegraph Association men must realise that as well as others.

There is a party in New Zealand, both political and industrial, whose leaders are working to a theory and who want to make all things fit into t'heir theory regardless of consequences. The idea is that society consists of two classes—capitalists and workers—and that all individuals should be forced into one or other class. They would split the public service of the Dominion in twain, • placing the Government and head officials in the capitalist class, and all others in the working class. These two, they say, have nothing in common. The cry then is war from start to finish. We appeal to the civil servants of this country that this theory is both false and absolutely dangerous. Not even in Communist Russia could they attempt to run a country on the basis of such a disruptive anarchic idea, and yet we have Labor leaders here engaged in organisation along such lines. The truth is that the whole of the people, including the civil servants, are the capitalists of our State Departments and works. The trouble is many are so stupid as not to understand that our people, with few exceptions, are both capitalists and workers at the same time, Mr. Howard, M.P., said, with reference to the Empire, “One big Union”; so it is; our Dominion is a union. But how are we to class the men who are out to disrupt it? Are they not socially non-unionists? We say let the civil service have organisation, and may it be free organisation controlled only by themselves, without any alliances which, though attractive, must prove to be but traps to catch the unwary. It will no doubt be urged that State miners, railway men and construction workers are in alliance with outside bodies. But before it is concluded that such is the reason for applying the same principle to the Post and Telegraph Department, and others where confidential matter is constantly handled let us pause and think where we are going. The miners, railway men, etc., are manual operatives and occupy another sphere to those handling matters which must be strictly private and dealt with as a trust. The public has every confidence in our civil servants now, but any bond of association which might take place between employees and outside organisations, entailing industrial amf political obligations, would seriously affect publie confidence and weaken the trust that is very essential for the well being of the Dominion. By all means let the civil servants seek for just recognition and a full and fair hearing. They are within their rights. Their °own organisation is sufficient if they use it properly. In the public interest, and their own, they would be better to have nothing to do with outside alliance. As men they are surely capable of fighting their own battles. No sectional organisation of either employers or workers has any right to control the public service and any attempt in that direction must be contested. (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.)