RAILWAY WORKSHOPS MECHANICS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 138, 7 March 1941, Page 5

RAILWAY WORKSHOPS MECHANICS

Skilled Men In Wartime

SUGGESTION THEY MUST NOT LEAVE JOBS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, March 6.

A recommendation that skilled workers should not ibe permitted to leave their employment at the Railway Workshops during the war is to be made to the Government by thb Auckland Armed Forces Appeal Board.

During the hearing of appeals on behalf of five railway employees Mr. J. B. Graham, manager of the Otahuhu workshops, said that some were engaged in munition work. The workshops staff had shrunk from 1800, to 1400 since the war began, in part due to the-Government’s call for a special railway battalion. All members of the mechanical staff called in the ballots would be appealed for. There was difficulty iu retaining the staffs, as skilled men wanted to go to private work, attracted by a little extra an hour.

Personally, the witness said, he thought that the departmental pay and conditions were better than those outside iu the long run. The fact that there was no lost time compensated for the slightly lower departmental hourly rate.

If they had the necessary men the workshops could operate three shifs instead of two.

The chairman, Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, thought the board might be justified in recommending that mechanics be not permitted to Rave the service while the war was on.

The five appeals were adjourned sine die, conditional on the men remaining iu the department’s service.