DISSATISFACTION. UNREST IN THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 23, 27 July 1911, Page 2

DISSATISFACTION. UNREST IN THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

OFFICERS DEPRIVED OF PROMOTION. PETITION TO PARLIAMENT. [UTS TELEGRAPH— PRESS ASSOCIATION.] ' DUNEDIN, 26th July. The outcome of the recent annual conference at Dunedin of delegates of the Railway Officers' Institute, representing the first grade in the service, is a petition to be presented to Parliament at an early date. The petition opens by asking that the position in the railway service, which, has been reduced in status during the la&t few years, shall be Testored, and that the Act shall be amended so as to provide that railw«ay officers shall fiOt be less efficiently remunerated than officers of the Post and Telegraph Department. The paragraph supporting this prayer pays. :— "Notwithstanding the fact that the traffic on the railways has increased considerably during the last few years, the Department is in many instances requiring officers in. a lower grade to pertoim tho duties, and accept th& responsibilities of officers in a higher grade at a lower rate of remuneration than is payable in the higher grade. Consequently efficient officers wifoh. long and faithful service are deprived by the Department of the promotion to which they are rightly entitled. This is causing dissatisfaction and unrest amongst the officers, who feel that the Department i& not carrying out the spirit and intention of the Act " The arguments adduced at the conference in support of the request for ab least equal treatment to that given to officers of the Post and Telegraph Department briefly were :— (a) That there is no legitimate reason why "ailway officers be treated so differently, seeing that they served the same employers. (b) That the duties performed by rail* Wa^ officers aro more imerouo and responsible than those performed by postal officers. (c) That the hours of duty are longer, and the work more trying, and on tho»«/ who have the working of the trains as part of their duty the continual strain has a detrimental effect on the nerves. (d) The vety fact that a slight mi«take may lead to an accident with disastrous results in the loss of life, not considering damage to expensive rolling stock, causes anxiety which railway men cannot avoid. The fact also thai; any such mistake carries with it tho penalty of reduction of grade or loss of position do«s not mitigate the anxiety. (c) A railway officer cannot get away from worm or shake off his responsibilities.- These responsibilities and trials ha-ve notbeen reduced by the safety atj pliancesMnfcrodttced, inasmuch as they require constant and reg«)w attention, and an officer is on duty practically every rnintite each long day. With regard to the statement of the Minister for Railways, that after the railways paid a certain percentage of profits he was willing to grant ft considerable fitmi by way of increasing the pay of the employees, the Institute says this is likely to act to the disadvantage of members' service, because should title stipulated profit not be reached, member* could not expect any promotion. It is further argued by the institute that this practice does not obtain in othfer branches of the public service which do not. and are nob expected to, show profit. To the argument that rail way officers receive privileges in the shape of a free pass once a year and privilege tickets as a get off against the advantages of pay enjoyed by the other department it is replied that railway offl ocrs would willingly forego these privileges for a consideration of solid cash and 1 the' payment of overtime. Of equal importance in the opinion Of the conference to the question of status ih the Civil Service was the question of the fixity of salary as laid down by the Classification Act during the 1910 sea* sion of Parliament. Tho clause •which was included In the Government Railways Amendment BUI provided that the G-ovemor-in-Couiicil might from time to time, on the recommendation of the Minister, fix the amount of salary to be paid to an officer of aaiy sum within the maximum and minimum limits of the class of tho grade in which such officer is placed, ahd such amount shall be the salary pay able to that officei in 1-sspecL of the office he holds without annual increment. This is objected to. The institute in its petition prays that the above-named clause may not be passed into law, and that they nlay be heard in the matter. A further prayer in the petition states that railway officers shall receive the same annual leave as officers in the Post and Telegraph Department, and that sick leave be not deducted from annual leave, or in the alternative that railway officers shall receive the same annual leave, the same sick leave, and the same payment for overtime as officers in the Post ami Telegraph Department. The petition further asks that railway officers be paid for all work performed on Sundays at the same rates as thoee paid to officers in the Post and Telegraph Department, and that the Act be amended to provide that the department and officers be equally represented on the Appeal Uoard. j that the Iboartl shall be presided over by a Judge of the Supreme Court, and that the decisions of the board shall be final. t OCher grievances set out in the peti« tion include the system of promotion, which ia said to be defective by reason of tho fact that efficient officers have been superseded by junior officers without satisfactory reason being given tto the officers superseded. It is also maintained that the travelling allowances payable tmder the regulations of the Act to relieving officers in grades 7, 8, 9, and 10, being officers in receipt of maximum salaries of £500, £255, £220, and £200 per annum, respectively, is insufficient to compensate relieving officers. The petition , will be accompanied by schedules showing the number Of positions in the Railway Department which have been reduced a grade dttring the last three years For instance, the position o? traffic managers of Dunedin and Wellington alstricts nas been reduced, by £100; district traffic managers of Wanga. fmi'and IrtVercargill are receiving £15 less than formerly ; relieving officers at Wanganni and Dunedin are receiving £45 less than paid for the positioh three years ago, whilst the position of storekeeper at Adding ton is worth £100 less than before the reductions took place.