CO129-599-4 Salaries Commission- 1947 Report 1-1-1947 - 31-12-1949 — Page 17

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in the right assessment of the salaries of Deputy and Assistant Directors in relation with those of Directors on the one hand and of senior and specialist officers in the professional departments on the other hand. functions of a Deputy Director in a large or complex department are easily to be understood, but in recognising the fact that the final responsbility lies on the shoulders of the Director we are not entirely satisfied that we have followed a right course in rotaining the established relation between the salarios of the officers in these posts. Another question which we have by no means resolved is the relative value of the mainly administrative duties of a Deputy Director and the professional duties of a senior professional officer.

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An Assistant Director does not share the responsibilities of the Director oven by dovolution and his value as co.rod with that or an experienced professional officer of the same department is even loss oagy to assess. The salary of the Assistant Director in the Public Works Department is higher than that of an executivo ongineor and a comparable grading was proposed by the Director of Education. We suggest that Government should consider and lay down the general principles which should govern the relation and functione of those largely administrative officers in professional departments.

Difficulties arising from high remuneration obtainable by professional mon locally.

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A further difficulty which faced us was the posibility that in cortain professions the post war income level which a local candidato might expect might he higher than the salary which would attract a similarly qualifial candidate from overseas. This housibility crused us considerable difficulty in formulating; our proposals regarding expatriation pay, but we have come to the conclusion that the policy of fixing basic salaries to suit local candidates does not imply that a local candidate should be engaged whatever the cost. This situation can, in our opinion, only be caused by conditions of temporary scarcity and we have preferred in such cases to i moze temporarily exrgreretod rates of income and to base our recommenda- tions on scales accepted by the professions in the United Kingdom.

Qualifications.

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In recommending revised scales of pay we have assumed, especially in the professional services, that officers possess the recognised essential professional qualifications. For example, wo have not regarded the possession of a degree in engineering as in itself qualifying a man for appointment on the scale proposed for engineers; we have taken it for granted that he shall also have served the professional apprenticeship that would qualify him for admission to his professional institution. We have assumed for oxample that locally trained doctors appointed on to the scale will have had at least two years supervised experience in a hospital or will have had the kind of apprenticeship that is recommended in the Spons Report on the Remuneration of General Practitioners. We have assumed that medical