RAILWAY SAVINGS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1192, 29 July 1911, Page 3

RAILWAY SAVINGS.

HOW THE STAFF SUFFERS. SOME STIUKING EXAMPLES. The following article appears in tin; "New Zealand Kailwiiy Officers' Advocate.":— Doubt of our ability to provo the inference contained in our .lime issue that Hie reduction iii working expenses in the H.-iilirny Department, aiinwiuicral by (lie Minister for Hail ways in a recent speech, was made partially "at the expense of thn ft a If, is expressed by .i loading daily, and the opinion is given that (lie Hoii. Mr. Millar will have a good answer to th.it portion vl our last article. lo properly .estimate the worth of our contention, it j : ; necessary to remember that (!>o foundation for thn greater part uf Ihc reduction in working .expenses for (ho railway year which ended .March 31 last was laid during the precious year, when a saving of a.i'J per cent, was effected. Much of this was undoubtedly due to the elimination of certain unprofitable train services, and to other economies of a similar nature, and we were careful to point out that this had l.ot escaped notion; but tho wholo of the saving of per cent, shown whan the figures for Hie year Wlfllt are compared with those lor iyOS-01) is not due to these onuses. In the article referred to, wo touched upon flirco methods that, have been adopted to help reduce the expenditure at the expense of the officers of tho service. They were:— 1. Tho reduction in the value of certain positions in the service. 2. Tlir excessive hours ■ many officers are called upon to work, li. Tho failure of the Department to suitably recompense- officers for Sunday work.

Wo propose to deal with each of these in turn, and thiuk we will be ablo to clearly show that our previous remarks on tho matter were justified. The first and most important of tho three headings set out alxjvo has reference to tho unfair reduction hit the value of the salary attaching to many senior positions in the service. During the past two years many hundreds of pounds have been saved (?) by means of this device, which has been brought into use in a variety of ways. For instance, when Messrs. Grant and Arthur, traffic superintendents of the South and North Islands respectively, retired, the title of traffic superintendent was done away with, and & new out—that of senior district traffic manager—used to replace it. The gentlemen who succeeded Messrs. Grant and Arthur are carrying out exactly the same duties as were performed by (heir predecessors, but the result of the alteration in the t.itie is that they are each eligible to receive a maximum salarv pr-eeise.lv ■£100 per annum lower than (hat formerly paid. Writing on this matter a few mouths ago. we drew pointed attention to thn reduction made in the position of car and wagon inspector at Wellington. A retiring member in the seventh grade had been replaced by one in the ninth grade, and we had good reason to bolievc that, an exactly similar thing was going to happen in Dunedin on the retirement of the car and wagon inspector there. Somo little time after tho facts had been made public, however, tho Dunedin vacancy was filled by the transfer of an eighth, grade officer to Dunedin, his place being taken by a ninth grade member. Hero we have an instance of , the reduction of the status t of two positions in the filling of , one position. The vacancy caused by the transfer of an eighth grade foreman of works was filled by a ninth grade member; a seventh grade stationmaster died, and was replaced by ono iu the eighth grade; a traffic clerk was Iransi'erred to a now position without increase in salary, whilst tho position vacated bv him was filled by a member only recently appointed to the grade Ijelow that occupied by his predecessor. Aur number of similar examples might be quoted. That a- very considerable saving is,ma.de,is apparent at a glance, because (hero -is-.:not only tho reduction in tho salary attaching to Hie original position lo bo considered, but also the saving effected owing to the, nonpromotion of a series of officers in the grades below that occupied by the mombet transferred to- fill the original vacancy.

ihe next matter under notice is (ho excessive hours worked in many places. It is impossible to accurately estimate (lie saving in salaries brouzht 'about by (ho policy of under-staffing stations, but three examples, taken from a mass of similar figures and statements in our possession, may bo given, and our readers left to draw their own conclusions. Number

ono concerns a station at the southern eud of the Middle Island. Hero the s(alionmaster and a clerk, working alternate weekly shifts, averaged 11 1-3 hours per day, exclusive of meal hours, throughout the year. No allowance has been made for numerous additions to this time, necessitated .by the running of special trains, nor for Sunday work. Although 39 hours is recognised as being the ordinary clerical week iu any other Stato Department, ■ wo well, to .guard against any possible charge of exaggeration,, assume that railway officers are entitled to work the hours of an ordinary labourer—namely, IS per week. A simple arithmetical calculation on I his basis will show that the two members referred to each worked at least 130 days' overtime during the year for the benefit of that £i Is. 3d. rev cut of J] r. Millar's. Illustration number two is taken from a sta-

tion in t)io northern part of the same island. The stalionmaster hero is in =010 charge, and his ordinary hours of luty aro from 7 a.m. (o 7.30 p.m. During that time, he is usually ablo to get nray for altogether two hours for meals. so that he actually works 101 hours per lay. His contribution to the' Department imounts to 93 days' labour, free of :har?K Our last example is taken, from .ho North Island Main Trunk line. The jlencal staff consists of a statJoiunaster md a clerk, whose nominal ham-s are from i.45 a.m. lo . r ).O p.m. (early shift), and W i.ni. (o 9.1 a p.m. (late shift), or 11} lours cacli, less one hour off for meals. ITio work, however, cannot be overtaken ii tlio time set out, and (lie early shift s usually extended to .7.15 p.m., whilst ho officer on lato duty arrives at 9 a.m. md remains until 10 p.m., the actual forking day being 12 hours. The Department, then, gets exactly six months' overimo work from each-of these men wilhut haviiiß lo write anything on (he rorkinij excuses side of 'its yearly ual-nec-shect as a set-oIF against their la/i----ur. ■ ' ■

Tliß three cases quoted aro not exceptional as regards tho hours worked. Instances o.oula Ihj eiveu showing » con siderably v;orsc state of affairs, but we choose the.=o particular examples hscausß in each of them we are able to riuoto further facts that should prove especially illuminating. Before doin" .this, it will bo as well to refer briefly to the altered conditions now in force in respect to sick leave. ?omc eighteen months a;:<> increased' sickness (the natural result of l<m.<: hours and inadequate accommodation) amongst the members of the First Division so alarmed the lnnnagomunt that it cast about for. a plausible excuse, for the withdrawal o'V the one concession made to oflicors to compensate them for overtime—sick leave. This was provided by the fact that a few ofticers who pleaded '.-.ickiiess as a pretext for absenting themselves from duly wero unable to satisfy tho Deparment of-the genuineness of their statements, and it was liromptly announced that owing to malingering, any sick le.ivo granted would in future be dedueled from the annual leave duo to the ailing , lneinber. Now, the stationmaster in our first, caso was unfortunate enough lo have suffered several attacks of illness during the twelve months prior to his annual leave becoming due, and had ljoen absent from work from this cause for altogether twelve days during the year. When he was granted leave this time was deducted, although tho Department, could liave given him the twelve days and still have had four months' unpaid work to help swell "tho surplus." As a sel-ofi lo his lengthy hours, ilie officer whose ea=e we have used for our second illustration applied lo'llis district office for the very moderate concession of a few hours off onoe a week, hi support of his application, he forwarded a schedule of (ho time worked in two consecutive weeks, showing lohils of 77 mid 75 hours respeelivelv, and he lnonlioned incidentally that, lie luul worked .10 hours on end al Easier lime without sloop or relief. (The sign.ilni.iii who was blamed for Ihe collision at Tiichmoud, Victoria, in August las', hid liren on duty under thirteen hours when ho made whit the coroner termed "m ' honest mistake.") The stationmastsr'i reiucit was declined

by (lie Diilricl JJ.-inager, in the follow iiif words:-' ... ,

"I recrel. 1 rannot arr.mgo for relief of (his kind. Ordinarily you aio only on from 7 a.m. (o "..'!() p.m., and Ihcre' are u(her stations having as lonp; or longer of rognlar duly, with altendasice on spi-eials when neccsiiiry. Specials will toon cease for some months, except unusual trips." Xo clearer indication of the Departmental poliey could lie desired. Tho f-fationin.-ifler only worked a miniimim of I"-' hours a day, and should consider himself as fortiinalely placed compared with some of his fellow-workers!

pin- final illustration shows tlie Bis (net Mamager in a better light, thongl this is at the expense of the Genera ■Jlnnager. Two commiinic.ilinns from (h< sliitioiiniiister represenlinp the nceossitj lor ndilitional clerical staff wcro fonvimi ed on by tlm district officer, with a fav. ourablo recoinmcndation, but only elicit r-d the stereotyped "It is regretted," etc. in reply.

It will bo obserrofl Ihat in ralculatinp tho value in days of the overtime worked by tho officers at the different stations used iu our examples we have nlmved liothin.? for (ho overtime incidental (o (he running of special trains onlsiile (he ordinary or time-taiile hours of duty, nor have we increased (lie overtime >iy a quarter, as the Arbidr.lion Court would do if called upon to adjudicate on the mailer.

-Ilie? third method of money-saving mentioned last month had (o iio villi nonpayment of ollicers for work performed 'on Sundays. The lilies n.-cd by tho Department (o amid paying officers for work dono on - Sundays are unfair, mid in some instances ludicrous. Wo jiave last moiifli one example of tho latter phase of (his question, showing how (ho management refused l 0 pay for Sunday work because a train liad started its journcy prior to midnight Saturday. Sunday pay is only pivt-ji to officers for atto'.ida'.uv upon Sunday train?, or for work Midi 'is bridge repairing, specially authorised by I lie General Manager In be undertaken on Sunday. Of Into it lias been further ruled that those taking duty on a Sunday must attend to all Sunday "work at their station or post for that day. That is to fay, should there be trains running at intervals from midnight Saturday until midnight Siindaj-, only one officer' (or set of officers, if more than one is required on duty at the one time) will receive payment. At most of the larger stations the booking clerks and others find it necessary to work at least one Sunday in die month for the purpose of preparing their fonr-wceklj- returns, whilst at busv holtday '.lines, such as Christmas or Easter, Sunday work must be undertaken if the books are (o.bo kept up to date. Formerly such duty, if authorised by the district officer, was paid for. Now, however, the Department declines to recoprit as Sunday work. Of course, it still has to be performed, and men are brought nn duty to do it. The irinister for ]!:\ihvays has been almost directly accused in' the public press of having attempted to bribe the railway employees by promising to divide .£50,000 nmongst them in the form of increases in wage?. A?, howevor, (he ordinary scale ' increases due during (he year which began on April 1 amount to over £10,000. the sum remaining to bo distributed will be under .£20,000. The proportion of this latter amount likely to bi? allocated io the first division of tli'o service will bo ouifo inadequate to remedy the state of affairs now existing, and we fancy the. Hon. .T. A. Millar is sufficiently well aware of this fact to realise that the officers of the service liavo estimated his statement at its true worth.