Preamble.

Limitation of
Act.

Divisions of service.

Professional division.

An Act to regulate the Civil Service.

[18th June 1862.]

HEREAS it is expedient to classify the Civil Service according to the duties performed by the officers thereof, and to regulate the salaries therein accordingly, and to establish a just and uniform system of appointment promotion and dismissal, and to grant to such officers furlough for recreation and other purposes, and provide retiring allowances for them in certain cases: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of Victoria in this present Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same as follows:

PART I.-CLASSIFICATION.

1. Nothing in this Act shall apply to any judge of the Supreme Court or of any inferior court, or to the master in equity, or to the chief or any other commissioner of insolvent estates, or to any prosecuting barrister, or to the commissioners of audit, or to any honorary officer, or to any officer the right to appoint whom is not vested in the Governor in Council, or to any officer constable or other member of the police or volunteer force, or to any officer paid out of contingencies, or to any officer remunerated by fees or commission, or to any officer who is now or hereafter shall be in any department which the Governor in Council shall declare temporary, or to any officer temporarily appointed or employed, or to any officer or class of officers to whom or to which the Governor in Council shall declare that the provisions of this Act shall not apply.

2. The civil service shall for the purposes of this Act be taken to consist of two divisions (that is to say) the "ordinary division and the "professional division."

3. The professional division shall include all those offices whether now existing or hereafter to be created which require for their exercise some skill usually acquired only in some profession or other pursuit different from the civil service; and shall consist of as many classes as the Governor in Council may in the case of each department of such division direct.

No. 160.

4. The ordinary division shall include all those offices whether 25 VICTORIA, now existing or hereafter to be created which are not comprised in the professional division; and shall consist of five classes.

Ordinary

division.

class.

First Schedule.

5. The officers mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act Salaries of first shall be officers of the first class in the ordinary or the professional division; and (except in the case of officers paid by virtue of any Act now or which hereafter shall be in force) shall have attached to them respectively, but subject to such alterations as are hereinafter provided, the several salaries which shall be granted to them by the

Appropriation Act for the year One thousand eight hundred and 1862.

sixty-two.

6. Every class in each division as aforesaid except the first Salaries and class of the ordinary and the first class of the professional division ments of other shall have a maximum and a minimum limit of salary, ascertained classes. in the manner hereinafter directed; and every officer therein shall be entitled to receive in every year by way of increase to his salary a sum equal to one-sixth part of the difference between the limits of the salary assigned for that year to the division and the class in which he is placed; but no officer shall in any year receive a salary higher than the maximum limit for that year in his division and class.

how defined.

7. Before the transmission of the message accompanying the Limits of salary Estimates in any financial year, the Governor may recommend by message to the Legislative Assembly a rateable reduction or increase, if any such be required, according to a specified rate in or to the salaries of the officers of the first class, and also a maximum and minimum limit of salary for each class except the first in each division of the service; and the rate of such reduction and increase if any and the limits of salary thereupon adopted by the Legislative Assembly for each such class shall be the rate of reduction and increase or the limits of salary as the case may be for that class during the financial year; but in every inferior class the maximum limit of salary shall be less than the minimum limit of salary in the class next above such inferior class.

classified.

8. As soon as conveniently may be after the passing of this Act, offices in departthe Governor in Council shall determine the number of offices of ment to be each division and class aforesaid that are required for the efficient working of each department, and shall classify the officers of the civil service according to the arrangement of offices so determined; and as soon as such classification has been completed a statement thereof shall be published in the Government Gazette.

officers.

9. Where any officer thinks that in the classification for the Appeal given to year One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two he has been placed aggrieved in a class lower than that in which from the nature of the services he performs he ought to have been placed, if the responsible minister in charge of the department consent in writing that he shall do so, he may within one month from the date of the publication of such classification apply to the Governor in Council; and the Governor in Council shall thereupon appoint three or more competent persons to hear and report thereon, and may confirm or alter such classification, and such classification as confirmed or altered shall be final.

25 VICTORIA, No. 160.

Decision of
Governor in

Council on ques

tion of rights or

final.

Classification to be published annually.

10. Where any question arises respecting the rights or the obligations under this Act of any officer or class of officers, the Governor in Council may decide the same, and such decision shall be final.

11. As soon as convenient after the determination of such apobligations to be plications in the year One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two and in the month of January in every year afterwards, a list of all officers in the civil service classified as aforesaid with the date of their first appointment shall be published in the Government Gazette; and such list shall be prima facie evidence of the character of the office and of the rank and length of service of every officer therein named. 12. It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council from time to time to diminish the total number and alter the distribution of the officers in the civil service in each department as circumstances may require.

Number of

officers may be altered.

Provision for reduction of

in the limits of their class.

13. Where in the present year any officer shall receive a salary Salary of present assigned under this Act to the class in which the Governor in Council officers but with- places him but beyond the minimum salary of that class, such officer shall continue to receive the same salary, but shall not receive any annual increment thereto until the time at which if he had entered such class at its minimum salary in the present year he would have been entitled to receive an annual increment.

Provision for the like reduction beyond such limits.

Compensation

salaries in certain cases.

14. Where in the year One thousand eight hundred and sixtyone any officer received a salary higher than that assigned under this Act to the class in which the Governor in Council places him, he shall receive the maximum salary of such class.

15. Where in the case mentioned in the next preceding section for reduction of the reduction of salary amounts to or exceeds ten per cent., the officer whose salary is so reduced shall receive in consideration thereof a sum amounting to one-twelfth part of such reduction for each year of service, and a proportionate sum for any additional time less than a year.

Compensation for loss of office.

1861

Persons entering

the Service to be subject to probation.

16. When the services of any officer") are dispensed with in consequence of any change in any department and not for any fault on the part of such officer, if he have been employed at the time of the passing of this Act in any office for which a salary has been provided by the Appropriation Act of 1861, or if at any future time he hold in his own behalf and not as acting for any other person any office within the meaning of this Act, every such officer shall as compensation receive for each year of service one month's salary according to the rate of salary paid to him during the year One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one [or at the time when his services shall be so dispensed with as aforesaid, and a proportionate sum for any additional time less than a year.

PART II. APPOINTMENTS.

17. Every person entering the Civil Service within the meaning of this Act shall (except as hereinafter provided) be subject to the

(a) This applies to officers or other persons whose salaries or allowances are or have been paid out of a vote for education. The determination of the employment of an inspector of

denominational schools by dissolution of the Denominational Board was "a change in his department."- Geary v. The Queen, 2 W. W. & a'B. (L.), 50.

No. 160.

probation herein directed; and shall be conditionally employed in the 25 VICTORIA, lowest, or where in the opinion of the Governor in Council special but not professional qualifications are required in the fourth, class in that division of the service to which he is attached at the minimum salary of such class.

tion.

18. Every candidate for admission into the Civil Service shall And to examinaas a condition precedent to his nomination as a probationer produce such evidence as the Governor in Council may think sufficient as to his age health and moral character; and every candidate for admission into the Ordinary or the Professional Division shall further pass before a board of examiners appointed by the Governor in Council such examination but without competition as the Governor in Council may from time to time direct.

19. When any person has been conditionally employed upon After probation probation in any office in the Civil Service, if at the expiration of may be made three months from the date of such employment the first class officer absolute. of the department in which the probationer has served recommend in writing the probationer as a suitable person to be appointed an officer of the Civil Service, the Governor in Council may (if he think fit) then but not before appoint such person.

dismissed.

20. The Governor in Council may at any time during the pro- Probationer may bation summarily dismiss any probationer; and every probationer be, y shall during such period receive half the salary of the class in which Remuneration of he is conditionally employed, but if he be permanently appointed he shall receive the remaining moiety from the date of his conditional employment.

PART III.-PROMOTION.

probationer.

21. When in the ordinary division any vacancy occurs in any Promotion in the superior class, if it be expedient to fill up such vacancy, the Governor ordinary division. in Council, except as hereinafter provided, shall promote from the class next below that in which the vacancy has occurred such officer as he shall judge the most deserving of such promotion.

professional

division.

22. When in the professional division any vacancy occurs in any Promotion in the superior class, if it be expedient to fill up such vacancy and if the Governor in Council be of opinion that there is any officer of lower rank in the department where such vacancy has occurred competent to discharge the duties of the vacant office, he shall appoint such officer; but if there be no such officer, then he may appoint such person as he may think fit, although not previously engaged in the civil service with or without examination or probation.

appointed with

examination.

23. Whenever it is expedient to secure for the public on the In special cases Occurrence of any vacancy the services of some person of known persons may be ability and to place such person immediately in some of the higher out probation or classes of the civil service, although such person may not have been previously engaged in the civil service of this colony and although there may be in the lower classes of the service officers competent to perform the duties of the vacant office, the Governor in Council (anything in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding) may appoint such person accordingly, and without either examination or probation.