DUAL SALARIES.

Auckland Star, Issue 17, 21 January 1932, Page 3

DUAL SALARIES.

RAILWAYMEN'S POSITION. SUPERANNUATION NOT ENOUGH. FORCED TO SEEK OTHER WORK. "This is the first time I have found myself in entire accord with the philosopohy expounded by the president of the Auckland Provincial Employers' Association," said Mr. J. Elliott, national executive officer of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, when commenting tlik morning on the question of dual salaries. "This controversy gives one an opportunity of making a few comments incidental to the present position of public servants, and it is a deplorable fact that in the last session Parliament partially defeated the very object which Mr. Albert Spencer so ably suggested, namely, that the superannuation fund should enable a man to have enough to live on in retirement without engaging in other work." "Durino- the last session the House of Representatives amended some of the clauses of the Act," said Mr. Elliott, "and left it optional with the actuary to practically pre-determine the length of life of a superannuitant. This has had the effect of so reducing the superannuation allowance of a number of the wage-earners of the railway service that they are being compelled to supplement their allowances by getting some sort of employment, because they are debarred from getting relief work. "It may not bo generally known that the genesis of the partial failure of the superannuation scheme is the partiality shown to ccrtain retired highly-paid officials. For example, one man has been retired seven years, and has drawn £14,000 out of the fund. Another has drawn £8000, and quite a number are now receiving from £8 to £15 a "week superannuation. "Surely Mr. Spencer's _ protest is worthy of serious consideration when he states he has personal knowledge of cases where men drawing £500 and £600 a year from this fund are earning a similar amount outside. From the railwayman's point of view this system of allowing these higli-salaried superannuitants to compete on the present highly inflated labour market is iniquitous, and it has come to our knowledge that at least one of these men is running an opposition service in the transport business against the Railway Department which pays him a huge superannuation."