TRAMWAY WORKERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 252, 25 October 1898, Page 2

TRAMWAY WORKERS.

MEN WHO WANT AN EIGHT HOURS

LAW.

LONG HOURS AND LOW WAGES

FIGURES FOR THE PUBLIC TO

PONDER

(From the 'New Zealand Times.')

From information received, as the police say, a 'Times' reporter has been making some inquiries as to the number of hours worked by, and the rate of wages paid to, the tramway employees in the four centres of New Zealand. The result is a sufficiently startling one, especially as the facts are gleaned from undoubtedly authentic sources. It shows that in this socalled 'Paradise of Labour' a system exists which is a disgrace to the people of this colony, and should at once be swept away by the strong breath of pxiblic opinion.

Take guards' wages to begin with. In Dunedin we find that on the city trams guards are employed 58 hours a week and paid from 5 2-3 dto SAd per hour; on the Roslyn line the men work 60 hours a week and receive 9Jd per hour; Mornington tram guards are also on duty 60 hours weekly and average Crl an hour, but on the latter line guards receive 1/ an hour overtime. In Christchurch the Sumner guards work 13A hours per diem, and receive 6_d per hour; on the other lines 9_ hours at 9d is the time and the wage. Auckland guards work 51, 53_, and 55 hours at 6d, 5 3-sd, and 5i per hour respectively, and receive extra for Sunday work. It remains for Wellington to make a record, viz., 66 to 73 hours a week (excluding Sundays, for which no overtime is paid) at 4_d to 5 l-3d per hour. The drivers in Dunedin city receive 6 l-5d to S_d for 5S hours' work, and get no overtime on holidays. The drivers on the Sumner line, Christchurch, get sfd an hour for 13i hours a. day; the other lines pay Sd for 9A hours. Auckland drivers work 55, 53_, 51, and 55_ hours a week, for 9d, S 2-sd, Sd, and S 3-5 d respectively, and are paid extra for Sunday. The Wellington drivers are made to work 66 to 73 hours a week at 6 2-3 d to 7 3-sd, and are made to work at certain hours on Sundays as well without extra payment.

Stable hands in Dunedin receive: On the city trams, men, 4 1-3 d an hour for S3 hours work a week; youths, same hours, lid to 13d an hour; but the proprietors,, with great generosity, allow these men every fourth Sunday off! The Christchurch stablemen work from 10 to 12 hours a day, but j their wages have not at present been disclosed" In Auckland grooms and stablemen work on the average 9_ ! hours and receive £2 per week. The I Wellington proprietary pays its stablemen 4id to s_d an hour for a day of 12 hours. The Wellington tramway employees in all branches get no overtime for Sundays or holidays, but their pay is religiously 'docked' in case of sickness or accident. Gripmen on the cable lines in Dunedin receive: Roslyn, 54 hours, 10id; Mornington, 60| hours, from 7d to 9id, and overtime, 1/ an hour. It should be added that, on nearly all the lines except those of Wellington the wages of the men are computed at a weekly rate, but here they are based on a monthly rate, which practically deprives the men of a month's pay every year. As to the conditions under which the men work, it may be said that the drivers particularly earn their wages very hardly. They are exposed to all weathers, the summer heat beinsr often more trying than the winter's cold and wind and rain. Then the men-having to stand or sit for so many hours contract complaints to which men in other occupations are not liable A serious element of the vocation is the unnatural strain put upon the systems of the men, who are often kept on duty six or seven hours at a strVteh, without evch five minutes to themselves.