WAGES QUESTION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21204, 29 August 1940, Page 9

WAGES QUESTION

PUBLIC SERVICE SPECULATION IS VARIED PRIME MINISTER’S COMMENT (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) WELLINGTON, Wednesday Opinions regarding likely Government action in respect of salary increases in the Public Service are varied. One suggestion is that the Government may, instead of granting a rise in salary, adopt the practice of granting annual bonuses on a varying scale. The latest prediction is that, although an increase is to be made in salaries below £335 a year, the increase will not amount to 5 per cent. Other forecasts of Government action anticipate a grading of any increase in wages and salary. “No decision has been made,” said the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, when asked to comment on a report that the Government had decided to grant wages and salary increases to all civil servants earning at present less than £335 a year. “The matter is still under consideration by the Government,” he added. “An announcement will be made as soon as possible.”

POST AND TELEGRAPH TALK OF BONUS ADDITION (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Wednesday Among the proposals said to have been made by the Government for officers of the Post and Telegraph Department is that a cost of living bonus of £ls a year should be awarded to married men and £7 10s for single men earning not more than £335 a year. It is estimated that the cost to the department for this bonus would be about £B2OO annually. The increases mentioned would equal only 4 per cent, it is said, and the Post and Telegraph Officers’ Association opposed the suggested scale on the following grounds:—The increase would be lower than that awarded recently by the Arbitration Court to all persons governed by industrial awards; the limit of £335 a year was too low, and the bonus should be granted to all members of the service, as it was during the last war.