23.
generate very serious and troublesome difficulties within its own
undertakings and the Colony at large, unless handled with sensitivity
The former secretary of the Civil Service informed
and deliberation.
the Legislative Council in a speech in November 1976 that:
"there is, however, a vital area to which increasing attention is being.
given the further improvement of staff relations. Hardly a week goes
by without a press report about a difference of opinion between manage-
ment and a staff association seeking some improvement in the conditions.
of service of its members" (21).
In the past few years local bushfire disputes have involved teachers,
nurses, land inspectors, typists, air traffic controllers and assistant
surveyors. There is no ready to hand assessment of what tangible damage
the disputes have caused. Work stoppages, go-slows and working-to-rule
have probably marginally interfered with the efficiency of government
services in the short term, Moreover, the defiance of authority overtly
manifest in industrial action has probably had a detrimental effect on
the confidence of management and the goodwill of employees. Most
significantly, however, sectional pay disputes leading to the movement
of groups up the incremental ladder have tended to spiral wage costs and
destabilize the pay structure as a whole.
Certain causes can be adduced for the as yet modest though persistent
escalation of industrial action and wage movements.
One point of "departure seems to have been the 1971 Salaries Commission
which radically re-ordered the pay structure and disturbed historical
(21) Speech by Hon. A. J. Scott, Secretary for the Civil Service,
in Legislative Council on 11.11.76.