Section 14 of the Civil Service (Transferred Officers) Compensation Act, 1929, provided that when, owing to changes in the conditions of employment of a transferred officer, the officer's position had been materially altered to his detriment he should be entitled to retire if he so desired with compensation based on service with an addition of years. The operation of that Act was by Emergency Powers Order suspended during the emergency and continues to be so suspended under the Supplies and Services Act. Suspension will terminate at latest on the 31st proximo and may be lifted earlier, if it can be so arranged, if and when the present Bill becomes law.
The object of this amending Bill is to ensure that, when suspension of the 1929 Act is lifted, certain changes in the conditions of employment of transferred officers which occurred while the Act was suspended will be deemed not to have been material alterations within the meaning of Section 14 of the 1929 Act. The compensation board will be precluded from considering any claim for compensation based on suspension of the operation of the 1929 Act, the stablisation of bonus, the consolidation of bonus with basic pay and the increase in the working hours of civil servants which obtained during 1941-46. Consequentially, provision is made for restriction on claims for compensation in respect of awards under the Superannuation Acts.
The Transferred Officers' Protection Association were parties to the consolidation agreement, an essential feature of which was the introduction of legislation on the lines of the present Bill. The whole matter was the subject of a ballot conducted by the transferred officers, the result of which was acceptance by 4,059 votes to 743.
