SHOP COMMITTEES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 155, 4 July 1927, Page 9

SHOP COMMITTEES.

RAILWAY BOARD'S INNOVATION. MANAGEMENT AND MEN CO-OPERATE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Railway Board of Control has introduced into the principal workshops on its system an important development making for closer association between the administrative staff and the rank and file. It has been decided to set up in each workshop a committee composed of six foremen and six workmen, three of the latter to be drawn from members of the Tradesmen's Association, and three from the Amalgamated Society of Servants, the two trade unions which represent the workshops staff. The functions of the committee are to deal with the following:— (a) Matters of local interest in their own respective shops, each committee to determine its own procedure. (bt. The shop committees shall not deal tfrith wages and national questions. In presenting the scheme to the workshops staffs the board points out that it will not be possible to represent each craft or classification permanently on the local committee, seeing that the number of workmen is limited to six, but a fourth member may at any time be-brought in by either society to represent any particular phase of the work pertaining to a department of the shops. In other words, each society, in addition to having three members, may have a fourth "floating" member drawn from any particular shop to represent something from his shop.

Local grievances may be dealt with by either society, and the works manager may settle such cases as come within his jurisdiction. The procedure of the committee and tenure of office are to be arranged by the workshop managers, and meetings are to be held at least once a_fortnight, commencing one hour before the final whistle. Union Objections Overcome. When the Railway Board first proposed the setting up of workshop committees, the strongest objection to the proposal came from the trade unions concerned, as there had been committees in operation, appointed by these organisations. Their work related to safety provisions and difficulties connected with the shops which were capable of local adjustment. Excellent results were obtained by this method, but the board was anxious to secure a closer co-opera-tion between the management and the staff, and therefore proposed the formation of committees partly elected by the shops men as a whole, and of nominees by the Department. In the original form, the trade unions considered that the scheme would completely undermine their functions, but the final draft of the official scheme has met with the approval of the Tradesmen's Association, and a modified or temporary acceptance by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. The executive of the latter body, which had the original 'proposals under consideration some weeks ago, resolved to instruct its members not to have anything to do with the workshop committees. Since that time, however, the Department has so considerably modified its proposals that the executive will reconsider that matter at its August meeting, and meanwhile members of the A.S.R.S. are joining the committees and they will gain practical experience of their working in time to report to the executive when it again considers the position. As a practical means of close co-ope ration between employers and employed, the workshop experiment of is great general interest.