24.
relativities. A legacy of unrest materialised with the dismantlement of
customary pay scales, and groups who have viewed themselves as relatively
disadvantaged by the post 1971 structure have fought to restore their
position vis-a-vis relatively advantaged and traditionally comparable
groups by sectional claims for additional increments on the pay scale.
A more general reason for the growth in sectional claims for upward
mobility through the pay scale might. be connected with the new quasi-
automatic income increases for MPS grades generated as a result of a pay
policy which takes as its premise the annual pay trend survey of
private sector pay increases. Since this mechanism at central level
now appears part of the natural order of things, the attentions of the
grade and departmental associations can be usefully concentrated on other
ways of securing additional income, namely by sectional claims-for
re-grading.
Further, employee pressure for improvements may have intensified as a
result of recent developments in the economy as a whole. After the 1973-4
recession and the 1975 government pay pause, the return of business
confidences and investment has created alternative employment opportunities
in the private sector. Thus a tighter labour market has strengthened
the public servant's bargaining power. and whetted his appetite for wage
and salary increases.
The springs of employee militancy briefly discussed above may place the existing machinery of staff relations under sufficient strain to warrant.
the reform of pay policy and pay structure and a sustained attempt to
democratize the central consultative machinery and supplement it with
additional formal procedures.