Territories’ Officials Threaten

Direct Action Inadequate Concessions Made By Money-Wasters At Canberra

From a Special Correspondent

Port Moresby. June 5.

ANEW salary scale for public servants in Papua-New Guinea, to operate as from March 1, 1948, has been announced.

It had for some time been believed that the authorities were preparing new salary rates. The announcement was not made, however, until the Combined Council of the two Public Service Asso ciations had sent a long radio to the Prime Minister requesting immediate financial relief for members of the Public Service, and threatening direct action unless a satisfactory reply was immedi ately forthcoming.

The most important feature of the new rates is a temporary provision that married men, wnose wives and/or families are living in the Territory, will receive a minimum of £5OO per annum.

This represents a partial victory for the Public Service Associations in tneir fight to draw Canberra’s attention to the alarmingly high cost of living.

But the general reaction to the new rates is unenthusiastic. Further cables nave been sent to the Prime Minister; and unless satisfactory answers are re ceived it is considered likely that public servants will hold a stop-work meeting.

The present moves are the culmination of a long struggle for better conditions m the Papua-iNew Guinea Public Ser vice.

Messrs. Buttsworth and Burns LATE in 1946, officers of the Adminis tration at Port Moresby held a meeting to protest about their con ditions. Shortly afterwards, two classi fying officers, Mr. Burns, of the staff of tne Department of External Territories, and a retired civil servant from NSW, Mr. Buttsworth, visited the Territory for the purpose oi classifying the service and rixing salaries.

For long months after their visit public servants hopefully awaited publication of tne new classmcation and salary rates.

Cost of living was rising rapidly and salaries were becoming hopelessly inade quate, but officers of the Administration neld their peace; it was understood that the Buttsworth-Burns classification would be retrospective, and it was hoped that it would be fair.

Then, in mid-1947, came publication of the Buttsworth-Burns classification, which was to operate retrospectively as from March 1, 1947. It was a muddled, almost incomprehensible, document, and the salaries it specified were obviously inadequate.

The Public Service at first received it in disappointed silence. No-one could follow tne reasoning employed by Messrs Burns and Buttsworth, but everyone could see at a glance that the figures were unsatisfactory. They could not stand comparison with rates paid to Commonwealth officers in the Territory or with current cost of living figures; or with salaries in other colonial services Messrs. Buttsworth and Burns could have laid the foundation for a happy, efficient public service; instead, they dashed the hopes which had sustained officers of the Administration for so many months, and a^ 8 - r ?: vated the widespread discontent which was badly hampering the Admin

istration in its implementation of Austra lia’s new coiomai policy.

Situation Becomes Acute THE Public Service Associations could not accept the new rates as final, and a long, thorough battle was in itiated. The most obvious argument centred around the cost of living. Can berra apparently had no idea of the rul ing prices in local stores, and would not take anyone’s word for it.

The Public Service Associations there fore combined their resources to com pile a careml and accurate analysis of living costs, basing their formulae on those employed in fixing certain Northern Australian wages. They arrived at the alarming but by no means surprising figure of £55 per month as the minimum necessary to keep a family in port Moresby. They forwarded their findings to the authorities and urged appropriate action. None was forthcoming.

This year the situation has been fur ther deteriorating. Costs are still rising, houses and amenities are still desperately short, and conditions are still uncertain.

Over the past six months the Public Ser vice Associations have encountered many cases of officers whose savings have dis appeared and who have finally become involved in heavy debts to the stores.

These men have not been extravagant; their plight was inevitable.

Several months ago a new issue was in troduced —electricity charges. The Ad ministrator insisted that electricity in Port Moresby must be paid for by the consumers, who recently received their nrst accounts. Tne charges were amaz ing, amounting on tne average to £6/10/per month. Tne Public Service Associa tions, as well as other organisations, pro tested; but the authorities would not budge.

The charges came into force on April 16, 1048. Many people simply refused to pay.

“Strong Measures”

THERE was one hopeful sign—rumours had trickled through from Canberra to the effect that, as Mr. Buttsworth claimed to have based his salaries on those paid in the Commonwealth, Terri tory salaries would be increased by 25 percent, marginal allowances, as had been done last year with Commonwealth rates.

Such an increase would not assist lower paid officers appreciably, but would have been of some help. In some quarters it was hopefully suggested that Canberra was preparing salary increases even higher than those received by Com monwealth public servants.

These rumours had been current since the beginning of this year, but nothing had come through by the middle of May.

At an emergency meeting late in May the combined council of the Public Ser vice Associations decided to take strong measures immediately. They sent a 340words radio to the Prime Minister, traversing most of the facts outlined above, and demanding immediate satis faction on three points:— ■ The immediate application of Com monwealth marginal increases. ■ Relief from the exorbitant electri citv charcres.

■ Action to have cost of living allow ances brougfit to an appropriate level.

The Prime Minister was informed that unless satisfactory answers were received, public servants would hold Territory wide protest meetings on Thursday, June 3. The radio concluded with a statement tnat no mere formal acknowledgement would suffice.

A reply was received from Canberra on Saturday, May 30, in which it was stated that new salary rates were in the mail and would reach Moresby that day.

The £5OO minimum for married men was specifically referred to. The reply also indicated that the other questions raised by the combined Council would be at tended to.

Presumably the new salary scales had already been worked out before the Council sent its telegram.

The New Rates THE most welcome provision is the minimum of £5OO (exclusive of child allowance! for married officers who are maintaining wife and/or family in the Territory. Tne Government Sec retary has stated, however, that “this arrangement is to be a temporary one pending a determination based on a full-scale cost-of-living investigation.”

The news that there is to be “a full scale cost-of-living investigation” is also extremely welcome.

Apart from this provision, however, the increases are not generous and do not correspond with those gained last year by members of the Commonwealth ser

vice.

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The largest increase is £96 for officers earning around £750. The figures dimi nish both above and below that figure.

Officers on £372 receive an increase of £lB. Most heads of Departments receive an increase of £5O, whereas Common wealth officers on similar salaries receive about £2OO. Sample increases are listed below:—

The Government Secretary has also made the following statement, the mean ing of which is not at all clear;— “A proposal is before the Minister re garding the commencing salary rate of members of the Papua and New Guinea Public Services, and also new appointees, as from March 1, 1947—i.e., the date from which the Buttsworth Classification operated. You will be further advised on this point.”

It has also been announced that an officer of the Department of External Territories will arrive at Port Moresby next week to assist in the interpretation and application of the new rates. Among other things, it is not clear whether officers due for an increment will move only to the minimum of their new range, or be credited with the increment on the new range.

Latest Developments THE combined Councils of the Public Service Associations have indicated that they are not satisfied with the new rates, nor on other matters raised in their radio. Further radios have been sent to Canberra, and the protest meet ings have been postponed one week (to June 10) pending a reply to the Associa tions’ latest submissions.

It is understood that the Public Ser vice Associations’ still demand:— ■ Further details of the proposed cost of living investigation, including an as surance that representatives of the Asso ciations will be allowed to give evidence ■ The introduction of a Public Ser vice Ordinance, which was promised as long ago as 1945, and which would pre sumably clarify superannuation rights, etc. ■ A finally satisfactory classification, with more adequate salary increases than have been provided, such increases to date back to March 1, 1947. instead of March 1, 1948. ■ The establishment of arbitration machinery. ■ The halving of electricity charges immediately.

As was urged in this journal nine months ago, the solution can only be an attractive basic salary with properly worked out cost of living variables. The present position remains confused and m some ways even ludricrous. Last month, for instance, applications were called for female counter-clerks in the local office of the Overseas Telecommu nications Commission at a salary of well over £5OO per annum. Typistes in the Administration have now moved onto what is nowadays regarded as the paltry salary of £312.

Protest Meeting ABOUT ISO members of the Public Service held a protest meeting in Port Moresby on June 10. It was :he first of its kind ever held in the Ferntory. Among other things, they isked for an immediate independent ;ost-of-livmg inquiry, and for allow inces retrospective to October 1945.

EDITORIAL NOTE; The cost of living

in Papua-New Guinea, compared with Australia, is very high, and far more than wipes out any advantage given by the absence there of income-tax, es pecially in the lower brackets. All Governments are parsimonious in rela tion to public service emoluments—they have got to be—but what can be said of an Administration that lavishly scatters millions of pounds of Australian taxpayers’ money among the natives of Papua-New Guinea, who don’t need it, and withholds, for so long, any kind of increase to Territories’ public servants, who need it desperately?

Present Raised Present Raised Salary to Salary to £ £ £ £ 300 312 372 390 408 426 462 498 588 642 642 714 714 786 762 858 786 882 810 882 834 900 858 900 1,000 1,050 1,050 1,100 1,250 1.300 1,350 1,350