for^a cost

Confused And Unconvincing

Compilation

New Scheme of Salaries for Papua-New Guinea Officials

Prom a Special Correspondent

Port Moresby. July 23.

AFTER a long period of hopeful wait ing, the new classification of the Papua-New Guinea Public Service has been made available to members of the service through the Public Service Association. The latter are considering it and, on some points, are seeking further clarification.

Members of the service have expressed no great satisfaction at the new rates, as far as they can be understood from a document which is at times difficult to follow. Based almost entirely on the Buttsworth Report, which was submitted to Canberra some months ago, it has done little to remedy the discontent already noticeable in the service. Indeed, it has in some cases seriously aggravated the situation. It is current knowledge in Port Moresby that the Administrator and his senior officers are seriously concerned about the new scales.

The matter has been discussed with the Public Service Associations, together with counter-proposals which were submitted to Canberra by the Administrator and a Committee of senior officers when the Buttsworth report first arrived in the Territory. These counter-proposals appear to have been given scant consideration.

As this classification is likely to be permanent, and as it has wide and dis turbing implications for the future of the New Guinea Administration, the follow ing analysis is as exhaustive as possible:—

The Basic Salary.

THE base salary rate for the lowest grade officers of the Second (Clerical) Division is fixed at £372 per annum.

For Third Division (Non-clerical) officers it is £354.

The method of computing this figure is set out as follows: From the Common wealth base standard salary of £292 (for a man, his wife and one child) £l9/10/is deducted for the first child. (Because in Australia only children after the first are allowed Child Endowment: whereas it is proposed to pay for each child in the Endowment Scheme recommended for New Guinea).

To the resulting £272/10/- a 35 per cent, margin is added “for higher costs in the Territory,” which brings the salary to approximately £372, which is, there fore the base rate. In addition to this there is an allowance of £26 for each child. (This is also 35 per cent, in excess of Australian rates). There is no marri age allowance, nor does the old provision that married men shall not receive less than £4OO apply to any future appointees.

This means that married men appointed in future lose on the transaction: and, further, as will be seen below, they will receive less than the rate granted in 1922!

Then, incomprehensiblv, the Minister has added a cost of living variation of £6 as from May 5, which brings the salary to £378.

“Real Wages” Lower Than In

1922.

THESE figures are computed on a harsher system than that adopted in the original NG classification in 1922.

The minimum salary for a single officer was £3OO, and all married officers on less than £4OO were given an allowance to bring them to that figure.

Cost of living then in the Territory was no more than in Australia, if not

less. At Rabaul’s hotels three meals

for^a cost

of livin S figure in the Commonwealth itself Therefore, cost of living did not en t er into the calculations which were arrived at on the following basis. To tho minimum commonwealth salary of £2OO per annum was added a loading of £lOO to provide for the disadvant ages and hardships of tropical service, the incen tive needed to attract quality personnel, the lack of amenities, isola tion from one>s normal environment, nT , d , margin npprUpd to finnnrp g T his is* hat Is i n J» load Since that date, the minimum sub

stantive salary of Commonwealth officers has been altered, according to Mr. Buttsworth, himself, to £292, in addition to which the Commonwealth officer obtains £64 as an allowance, variable, to account for the statistical discrepancy between the substantive salary and the present-day cost of liv ing. This is known as the “Cost of living allowance,” or variation.

The Counter-Proposals

THE committee of Administrative officers which considered Mr. Butts worth’s findings therefore recom

mended that to the base figure (£292) the traditional tropical loading (£100) be added, and that a further margin to account for cost-of-living variation be added to those figures. (Which is a com pletely different consideration from that of a tropical loading; Mr. Buttsworth has obviously not appreciated that quite simple distinction).

As there are no accurate cost of liv ing figures in the Territory, but as they are obviously no less than those operating in Australia, the Committee very reason ably suggested that, pending such figures, the Commonwealth rate of £64 be added to the substantive salary. Their recom mendations can be summarised as fol lows: — £ Present Commonwealth Base . salary 292 Plus tropical loading 100 Giving a basic substantive salary of 392 (which remains constant) To which is added (temporarily) the Commonwealth cost of living figure 64 Giving a total actual salary of .. 456 Actually, the Committee recommended £428, but they worked on a Common wealth base salary of £264, which was lower than that revealed to Mr. Butts worth. All these calculations would be slightly lower if separate allowance were to be made for the first child, which is proposed; but that factor is immaterial to the reasoning and the rough figure arrived at.

Economic Logic.

THEIR reasoning, then, seems eminently reasonable. It would only remafn to fix a cost of living index for the Territory to correspond with the Com monwealth index. (All this is economically equivalent to

the procedure proposed in June “PIM,” ex cept that there a tropical loading was ad vocated but was not put at any precise figure. “PIM” suggested that the actual Commonwealth salary be varied as cost of-living varies, which would eventually mean the same thing as adoption of the substantive Commonwealth salary plus a variable cost of living margin).

Strange Notions About Cost Of

Living.

MR. BUTTS WORTH has not allowed the tradditional sort of tropical load ing at all. He has quite arbitrarily de cided that cost of living in New Guinea is 35 per cent, in excess of the Australian level, but, strangely enough, has taken 35 per cent., of the Commonwealth sub stantive salary of £292, instead of the actual salary paid to meet Australian cost of living, which is £356. By taking 35 per cent, of the actual Australian salary, therefore, Mr. Buttsworth would arrive at a considerably higher figure; whereas the figure he recommends (£372) is only 5 per cent, in excess of the actual Australian salary of £356. So that Mr. Buttsworth has worked himself around to a procedure which sabotages his own arbitrary figure of 35 per cent.

It is fantastic to suggest that an officer in New Guinea only needs 5 per cent, more than an officer in Australia. Such an hypothesis is going to lead a lot of people into the Bankruptcy Courts.

This is in flat contrast to the Common wealth’s own procedure for those of its own servants required to serve in the Territory. They get their Commonwealth salary plus their Commonwealth cost of living variation, plus £l2O tropical load ing. (£292, plus £64, plus £l2O, gives a figure of £476).

Then comes the strangest provision of all, Since March, the Commonwealth cost of living has risen by £6. (In March

it was £sB>. And this £6 is to be added to the Territory salaries, which were originally fixed as at March. So that, although there is no reference to the Commonwealth cost of living figure in any original calculations, its rise of £6 is incorporated.

Further fantasy is introduced when it is realised that there is no reason why Commonwealth figures should not fall at some stage, thus lowering the substantive Territory salary below £372.

Tropical Loadings.

THE failure to allow the usual tropical loading to compensate for the general conditions of tropical service is a reactionary step in Administrative history.

Without such a loading, and with the harsh stupidities of the Buttsworth find ings, this Territory is not likely to attract one single officer of great merit. Already many good men have resigned, and many more intend to do so if this classification is not repealed very quickly.

It is even doubtful whether the officers of the School of Pacific Administration would be so desirous of running the country, or so solicitous of its welfare, on £372 per annum! And it is interesting to note that the Principal of the School receives £l2OO per annum for his services, whereas the Anthropologist to be appointed in the Territory, and who in a normal colonial organisation would surely be an important adviser, is to receive £834-906.

Salaries in senior positions are con sidered adequate, a representative figure being that paid to the Directors of the technical departments: £1,050-1,200.

But (as predicted in June “PIM”, Mr.

Buttsworth has shown little knowledge of the principles of wage-fixing, the elementary conventions of logic or the rules of simple mathematics. This classi fication is one of the strangest documents in Administrative history.

Canberra Says "No Mistake"

Port Moresby. August 3.

THE Administration has been informed by Canberra that there was no mis take in the cost-of-living schedules in the new classification of Papua-New Guinea public servants’ salaries.

It is indicated that the new classifica tion is irrevocable.

The only hope left to the Territories ser vices, therefore, is that Mr. Ward, on his return, will lend a kindly ear to their rep resentations. The Public Service Associa tions are not likely to remain silent under what is a manifest injustice—especially in view of the huge sum of public money being wasted on “fancy schemes” in the Territories.