13
XAppendix C
A
it is relevant to enquire whether this is
necessarily the result of the existence of a
large number of Classes, as stated and whether
it is not hyperbole to describe the situation as
"serious". It might, a priori, just as likely
be the result of too high a rate of increment or of
a wrong proportion of posts in the various Classes.
The former is probably ruled out by the
fact that the minimum time to work right through
the scales is 40 years; but it is evident that
in practice accelerated promotion whether
-
through the Special Class or not one cannot
-
tell has been operating to reduce this period.
Otherwise no one could reach the maximum of the
X
High Class until he was 57, two years past the
retiring age, whereas in fact we are told in
the petition that no less than 7 men out of 11
in this Class were on the maximum on 1/1/33, of
whom 3 had been on it for four years or more.
The proportion of posts, in the various
Classes, with which the Governor professes to be
satisfied, should bear some relation to the
time-period for each Class, after taking into
account the normal wastage in each and, to some
extent, the points in the seniority list at which
abnormal recruitment pressure is bound to result from expansion in the
past. I cannot see that in fact it does, though
of this more later in relation to the new proposals.
It certainly seems absurd to have as
many as nine classes, including a kind of "fast loop line" (The Special Class). The Salaries
Commission of 1929, whose report is on 62912/29,
seem