CO129-577-8 Junior Clerical Service- petition for improvements in salaries and conditions of service 6-7-1939 - 19-12-1939 — Page 34

34

X

3.

compares very favourably with outside employment in terms as to salary, increments and prospects, while

the pension system is greatly superior to the provident

funds and retiring gratuities established in outside

undertakings. Nor am I prepared to admit that there is

anything material in the complaints as to the starting

salary of new entrants into the Junior Clerical Service.

Such entrants are untrained probationers between

seventeen and twenty-one years of age and their value

to Government during the first few years of service is

There is in fact no difficulty whatever in

securing candidates of suitable qualifications at the

present salary.

small.

5.

With regard to the complaint of the inadequacy

of higher posts a fixed ratio has for some years been

established in the following proportions, and the

numbers of appointments in the upper classes are revised

annually in accordance with the total establishment.

Higher Class

Class I

Class II

2

3

00

Class III

Class IV

12

209

18

Class V

24

Class VI

73

in this system, but

2

?

There is a slight time lag

generally speaking I do not think the proportions of

higher and lower posts are inadequate.

6.

The one complaint in which I believe there

is some substance is that relating to stagnation on

the maxima of the lowest classes, which is associated

with the sub-division of the service into as many as

eight separate classes, which naturally leads to

frequent blocks in promotion. I believe that there is

also some ground for complaint as regards the absence