7
297
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
CO. 882/10
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government accepted the resig- nation of European Police Sergeant King, but could not make any definite state- ment with regard to the appointment of a Salaries Commission. There is grave dissatisfaction as to their emoluments in the ranks of the European Police Force, and the settlement of their pay is of paramount importance.
Post and Telegraph Department.
In connexion with the appointment of a successor to Mr. Goss, Assistant Engineer of Telegraphs, who resigned in August, 1919, Acting Postmaster-General (Mr. Fox) submitted that the sanctioned pay of the post-viz., £300-£20-£400 per annum and after three years' halt, £425-£25-£500 per annum-was quite inade- quate to obtain the standard of Engineer required, and therefore recommended offering a salary of £450-£25-£600 per annum plus temporary increase.
•
His Excellency the Governor, however, decided to try for an Assistant Engineer on the sanctioned scale, plus the temporary increase, and Secretary of State was asked to take steps for selection of a suitable officer from among the British Post Office Engineering staff.
The vacancy was brought to the notice of the staff referred to, but no one applied. Further steps were deferred pending consideration of a reorganization scheme which, if adopted, would render the post in question unnecessary.
Colombo Port Commission.
Mr. C. W. Musgrave came out in January, 1917, on a three years' agreement, as Accountant, Colombo Port Commission, the salary of the post being £300-£20- £400 per annum and, after a halt of three years, £425-£25-£500 per annum.
Ten months later, having received a better offer, he asked for an increase of salary, and Government agreed to pay him £400 from 1st October, 1917, on his undertaking to continue in service on that salary for three years from that date.
When he had served two years on £400, he asked that the third year be waived and that he be placed on the permanent establishment with a scale of pay adequate to his duties. The Chairman, Colombo Ports Commission, supported this request and recommended that Mr. Musgrave be confirmed in the appointment and placed on a salary of £500-£25-£700 from 1st October, 1919.
Government declined to grant the requests.
After Mr. Musgrave duly completed three years' service on £400 per annum, Chairman, Colombo Port Commission, recommended that he be placed on the per- manent establishment from 1st October, 1920, on a salary of £500-£25-£700; but, in view of rates granted to Accountants in other Departments, Government could not agree to the scale proposed, and offered to confirm Mr. Musgrave, if he was prepared, to accept salary according to the sanctioned scale, i.e., £425-£25-£500, adding that the question of revision would be referred to the proposed Salaries Commission. Mr. Musgrave agreed, and was confirmed accordingly.
In view of the postponement of the Salaries Commission, Chairman, Colombo Port Commission, has again moved for reconsideration of Mr. Musgrave's salary, and repeated his recommendation for grant of salary of £500-£25-£700 to this officer, pointing out that a scale of £500-£25-£000 has been approved for the three additional Assistant Accountants for the Railway Department.
Civil Service.
The Civil Service Association, which has been strongly urging the appoint- ment of a Salaries Commission, has now asked, in view of the proposed postpone- ment of the Commission, that the following be sanctioned as a temporary measure of relief, viz. :—
(a) That officers on leave out of Ceylon, and pensioners, be allowed, if they so desire, to draw their emoluments in rupees as if they were resident in Ceylon.
(b) That the present system of free passages be extended to officers draw- ing over £600 per annum.
(c) That the Colombo Station Allowance be extended to officers drawing over £900 per annum.
(d) That salaries of Cadets recently recruited on demobilization be adjusted so as to make due allowance for age and war service.
Mr. 1. M. Maartensz, District Judge, Colombo, an officer in Class II of the Ceylon Civil Service, on £1,000 per annum, has pointed out that, owing to the exclu- sion of officers drawing over £900 per annum from the benefits of the scheme for
Colombo Station Allowance and for free or assisted passages, an officer on £1,000 per annum is actually worse off than an officer on £900 per annum to the extent of some £37 per annum, thus :--
£
£
Annual Salary
900
1,000
Deduct account Widows' and Orphans' Pension
Fund (four per cent.)
36
40
864
960
Add Colombo Station Allowance (eleven per cent.)
99
Add Passage Allowance
24
Add Temporary increase
160
150
£1,147 £1,110
He submits that the case is one that needs immediate adjustment.
Public Works Department.
Director of Public Works has drawn attention to the disparity between salaries of Civil Servants and Technical Officers and the great advancement in position which Engineers have obtained by their work during the War, which renders it necessary that the position of technical officers in the Public Service should be reconsidered. If, however, the appointment of a Salaries Commission is to be post- poned, he submits for consideration the following alterations and adjustments which would go some way to ameliorate their conditions, viz. :-
(a) That the three-year halts at £350, £400, and £500, respectively, on the District Engineers' scale of £300-£25-£600 be abolished and effici- ency bars substituted at £350 and £500. Engineers join at an average age of twenty-six, and it takes nineteen years to reach £600 on the present scale, when the officer is forty-five years old.
(b) That the present two grades of Provincial Engineers-four at £750- £50-£900 and six at £600-£50-£700-be amalgamated to form one grade on a scale of £650-£50-£900. There is no good reason for making two grades, which only makes promotion slow. The initial salary of a Provincial Engineer is also the same as the maximum of a District Engineer.
(c) That the free passage concession be extended to officers drawing over £900, who are as much in need of it as their juniors owing to their greater family responsibilities.
(d) That the three supernumerary District Engineers, whom he has already asked for, be appointed. This would give promotion through the three grades of Assistant Engineers, Inspectors, and Head Overseers. The General Manager of the Railway has also submitted the following matters as calling for early attention if the appointment of a Salaries Commission is deferred :-
(a) Free Passages.-The restriction of this concession to officers draw- ing £600 per annum and under is, he submits, inequitable as the senior officers not only often have greater family liabilities, but also have to keep up a position befitting their rank and are also nearer the time when they will have to go on retirement, with a reduced income, at a time when the cost of living and income tax present a serious position at home.
(b) Halts on Salary Scales.--With reference to the three-year halts on the scales for :-
(a) Chief Officers :-£600-£50-£750 (three-year halt on £750), £800-
£50-£900.
£425-£25-£500.
(b) District Officers :-£300-£20-£400 (three-year halt on £400),' He submits that these halts are inequitable in the case of Railway Executive Officers, who generally come out at age thirty, after ten or twelve years' training at home. The Chief Officers, who have large responsibilities, should not be checked by such a halt on a scale which is in itself too low.
The District Officers, who were formerly on £300-£25-£400 had their incre- ment out down to £20, and a three-years' halt put in on £400, in return for the increase of their maximum to £500, and, even so, they are £100 behind the District
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