LOCO' ENGINEERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 131, 4 June 1923, Page 6

LOCO' ENGINEERS.

THEIR PAY AND THEIR DUTY. PLEA FOR GREATER REWARD. PRIVATE V. STATE TREATMENT. "The time is not far distant when the management of railways will give greater consideration to the disparity between the responsibility and wages of locomotive men. Modern inventions for the safety of the travelling public within recent years have added greatly to the responsibility of the men who handle a modern locomotive, and which now costs a very much greater sum to construct than it did a few years ago," says a writer in the "N.Z. Locomotive Engineers' Journal," "The mechanical appliances for prevention of accidents which add to the responsibility and worry of a loco. man are: YVestinghouse brake, electric train tablet, lock and block signalling, automatic signalling. These have all been added within recent years, and have been the undoing of many engineers.. 'Added to these mechanical accident prevention appliances, the loco, man has to contend with increased size of engine, increased speed of trains, and increased tonnage of trains. 'The three latter accentuate the position, and they came hand in hand with the previous appliances. To-day a loco, man has to run quicker and take a heavier and more difficult tonnage for handling, in addition to being his owii train running officer and contending with more complicated signalling than he has done previously. "In order to get greater speed and heavier trains, the locomotive he controls has been increased in size, and its mechanical appliances are more technical. The loco, man of to-day renders greater service tn society than ever, and although tliis is recognised by private companies the railways run by the State fail miserably in this direction, but it will come, as these things generally do, by rude awakenings of the public in some shape or form. 'Tn countries where private companies run the railways the loco, man is invariably paid not less than 100 per cent over the basic or living wage, 'but in countries where railways are State concerns they have been slowly decreasing from this standard until they do not register 50 per cent over this basis of adjustment. It might be that companies may be made bankrupt by inefficient loco, men, and that State railways can draw on the people themselves when they are hard hit. Be the reason what it may. a selfevident fact remains—New Zealand locomotive men are not paid a wage commensurate with the skill and responsi•bilitv demanded by their employers."