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Separate recommendations were also made on other issues. The employee side recommended a general increase in the clerical scales together with a review of the higher executive salaries, and a further lifting of the maximum for tradesmen to the £460 a year it had recommended for the basic-grade clerk. The official side could not. support the proposal for a general increase, but did consider that there had been a contraction of margins sufficient to warrant some readjustment. The official side's proposal was to lift the present maximum (£1,025) of the appointing authority's salaryfixation powers and, within the new salary range thus provided, generally adjust margins for skill and responsibility after a review of all positions above that of basic clerk. The unanimous recommendations and the separate reports were submitted to Government, which decided to refer all issues (other than the case for printing tradesmen) to the Government Service Tribunal. GOVEKNMENT SERVICE TRIBUNAL The question of establishing a tribunal to prescribe salaries and conditions of service for groups within the Public Service, as the Railways Industrial Tribunal does for Railways employees, had been under consideration for some time. Two approaches to this problem were open —a Tribunal which would affect only those branches of the Public Service that come under Commission control, or an over-all tribunal covering the Public Service, Railways, Post and Telegraph, Teacher's, Police, Reserve Bank, National Airways, and other Government agencies. The Commission favoured the second alternative, as this would give more uniformity in conditions among State employees generally, much as the Court of Arbitration does for employees outside the State Services. The Government Service Tribunal Act, passed in December, 1948, provides for a three-member Tribunal for the Public Service under Commission control. However, the way is open under it for other State organizations to come within the scope of the new Tribunal at a later stage, and this would undoubtedly be desirable. The Tribunal membership has been announced as : Judge Stilwell .. .. .. .. Chairman. Mr. E. Casey .. . . .. .. Government member. Hon. R. Eddy, M.L.C. .. .. .. Employee member. The two first-named are also Chairman and Government member respectively of the Railways Industrial Tribunal. GENERAL SALARY INCREASE With the setting-up of the Tribunal the Public Service Association lodged a formal claim for extending to the Public Service the general increase of £lO-£l5-£22 a year awarded to Railways and Post and Telegraph employees as from Ist July, 1948. The Commission agreed, and the Tribunal made an order granting the increases claimed. VARIETY OF WAGE-FIXING AUTHORITIES In the various branches of Government Service, salaries and wage scales are now fixed by many different bodies. There are anomalies in salary and wage rates, and in margins for skill and responsibility, and these are often cited to support claims for higher pay. They tend to be perpetuated because of the number of different wage-fixation authorities. A decision by Authority Xto increase the wage-rate of Group Ain order to correct an anomaly is apt to be regarded by Authority Y as a precedent for increasing the wage rate of Group B, thus recreating the anomaly. This starts a " leap-frogging " process which can go on indefinitely.

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