RAILWAYMEN'S GRIEVANCES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1261, 17 October 1911, Page 4

RAILWAYMEN'S GRIEVANCES.

DISCONTENT AT NEWMARKET. Men who work as mechanics in tho cmploy of tho Railway Department receive lower wages than other men in the trade, aud f&ere is discontent in the Newmarket workshops in consequence (says the Auckland "Herald"). Government employees say that while the Government through tho Arbitration Court makes awards lor firms to obey, it takes care that these labour laws do not ailect tho State.

A "Herald" reporter was told that the maximum wage for niechnnfcs in the workshops is 10s. fid. a day, and that for mechanics employed elsewhere the- minimum wago is 11s. The conditions, it is contended, are harder in the workshops, and the regulations in regard to apprenticeship are just the same' Members of tho <ecoud division consider that they have another cause for complaint in the fact that monitors of,the first division receive nioro privileges. The petition referred to, amongst other things, asked for a 10 per cent, increase in \vn;;es in all branches of tho railway service throughout the second division, and though the men have been told that a certain amount hns been set a?iile for thoir benefit, the Minister lias not given them details in regard to that promise.