WAGES AND CONDITIONS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 141, 16 June 1924, Page 8

WAGES AND CONDITIONS

INQUIRY BOARD COMMENCES SITTINGS

RESTORATION OF 44-HOUR WEEK

SOUGHT.

..:> The Board o£ Inquiry set up by the Minister o£ Railways to inquire into and recommendations upon the rates of Spay and conditions of employment in the ilecond division of the railway service, its local sittings at the SuCi)r?!Sf, J Court this morning. The board .consists of the members of the Arbitration Court (Mr. Justice Frazer, Mr. W. .'Scott, and Mr. H. Hunter), with Mr. J. ■Mason (first assistant general manager of railways), and Mr. M. J. Mack (secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants), as additional assessors. Mr. H. H. Sterling is conducting ■the case for the .Railway Department, 'i?nd -.Mr. M. J. Connelly for the railJjvayme'n. The evidence will be largely ■en the same.lines as that adduced at the ■previous wages inquiry. Although the "order of reference permits the board to "sit at such places as it thinks fit, it is j Clikely. that the proceedings will be.con;fined to Wellington. The whole of the j ■original -72 demands submitted by the ■ A.S.R.S. are under consideration, with ■ modifications in some particulars. The 'Department has prepared a number of ..counter-claims. 5 THE SOCIETY'S CASE. :^ Opening-the case for the society, Mr. -Connelly said the whole trend of legisla-tion-in.. J^ew, Zealand during the past ■'Jt'en years had been to reduce the hours •pf work, and to improve the standard of living for the working man. He quoted, ■■'from the Year Book to show that out of ''•'4l trades in New Zealand, 17 were work.jng 44' hours per week or less,. 14 were 48 hours or more, and 10 were ilvorking between 44 and 43 hours per Sveek.'"The tendency since 1914 had been Ho reduce hoars of work. End not to expend them. The fact that the Department had sought to place the railway3ien'oii;a longer working week, he sub,was a confession of its inability •or incapableness of managing the rail- ■ "ways properly, and running them effi'..ciently. and economically in the interests '■of the people of the Dominion. Eo referred to the fact that the Department : had a monopoly in railway transport, and . >that it did not have to pay dividends to .'shareholders. He went on to deal sepJarately; with the three branches of railjjvay work in the workshops, traffic and ■maintenance offices.

ifi The men in the workshops, he proceeded, were granted the 44-hour week '.<in 1918, three years before the other "Ijheraljer^ pi . the service. That was an '.'that the Department recognised that the conditions of the workshop 'mcii'were exactly the same as those Obtaining outside the railway service. «-Dealing-briefly with the' peculiar condi.tions "of employment in the workshops, pie declared, that'an element of risk was Haken-by -workshop employee's that was *not apparent in, other industries. The Uiours worked by the New Zealand railgwaymen compared most .unfavourably r*vith those obfcffiining"in~ the Australian ! States. The hours of work in the New .Zealand workshops were 48 per week, as •against, 44 per week in Queensland, South. Australia, and. Western Australia,; in New South Wales the hours were 48, but a percentage of the workers were on a 44-hour week. Furthermore, engineers, carpenters, and. others'working outside the railway service enjoyed the 44----hour week.

THE EIGHT-HOUR DAY. Mr. Connolly went on to deal with the eight-hour day. In the trades he had mentioned, he pointed out, all overtime; work_ done in excess of the hours specified in the awards counted as overtime, which was paid for at the rate of time and a half for the first four hours and double time thereafter.' Under present -conditions the Department could work Jhe men any hours without the payment x>f a fracjtiQii of overtime, while in other -trades the- men received extra .payment ior extra work. The Government re.cently. took away, from the railwaymen ■the payment of time and a quarter rates after the completion of eight hours in lone day. He quoted the overtime rates .payable in various "Australian" States, in -support of his contention.that the.New '.Zealand, .railwaymen were unfortunately J>laced in regard to the payment of overtime. He also referred to the fact that Twhile .the New Zealand traffic, maintenance, Jin.d; workshop men received overtime- t>nlr for' work in excess of 48 •hours per week, the locomotive men re.ceived overtime for. work in excess of 'eight per day and 48 per week.

MAINTENANCE STAFF. In regard to the hours of-work of the men on the maintenance staff, the "borciety sought an extra day off per month ;!on full ,-Pay, in compensation for work the ordinary hours :of .duty. "~He had' no-doubt that this reJrjuesfc would be met with the contention Hhat it_would.entail too much additional, ■expenditure. The maintenance men were entitled to special consideration by reason of the nature of their work, and the ;aisks they were' 'obliged to take. In this -connection he referred to a number of Occidents: that, had been reported in the Mast three/or four weeks, in which main--tenance-hien .had been killed or injured. 3n regard, v to the way and works branch ■•workersrhe stressed particularly the fact ■that the V.men were absent from their aieadquarters^for 75 per cent, of their ;lime during; the year. The hours worked ••l>y maintenance men in the Dominion -■were 48 per..week, as atrainst 44 in ;Qiieens!and; South Australia, and West ■ Australia', and 48 in New South Wales. .. , Passing, on .to the traffic department, Mr. Connelly'made similar comparisons, and referred to some of the difficulties wwith whicftjthe men had to contend. On of the danger, responsibilities, ■Tind heaviness of his work the society :sous»ht a 6-hour day for the shunter.. In .'A'ictoria, where other traffic men were on A 8 hours per week; the right of the 44- 1 "hour week had been conceded to shunters. AVhile the Government was unable to j manage.. the. railway system on a 44----hour week,..apparently the Wellington Harbour"- Board was we'll able to do so, aE the same time paying better wages aijtl overtime. The rate-of-pay for permanent hands in the board's service was 15_s per day, while the railwavmen received 13s 4d per day. Generally speaking, the Harbour Board employees were on velvet in comparison with the rail■u'iiy traffic worker. SCHEME A 5 " " CURSE. VThe railway superannuation scheme, sSid Mr. Connolly, was regarded by the n'fen not as a privilege, but as a. curse. They were in the position of a milking cow lor the benefit of employees who w£re on the higher salaries. The. men were compelled to contribute to the fund, and as workers they were unable to afford contributions to outside insurance schemes at the same time. •' After paying into the superannuation fund for about 20 years a man might do something to cause his dismissal. He was handed hack the amount of his payments^ '

but owing to his age he was unable to insure elsewhere.

The question might be raised Whether the railways could stand a 44-hour week or an eight-hour day as in other industries. That had already been proved, for the 3J per cent, interest on the capital involved, which' the Depart.ment sought to clear annually, had been achieved during the financial year just closed, during which the 44-hour week obtained. He challenged the right cf the Department to say that because the railways were not paying such and such a rate of interest the workers could not be given decent wages, hours, and conditions. Improvements were being effected in the service through the. introduction of new inventions, and if produce did not show better financial results' in the Department's workings, one could only conclude that the man-1 agement was not as efficient as it should- * be. It would seem that while tho sysvi tern had been running under what the ! j Department might claim to be adverse 1 conditions, it was ysfc able to pay more': than the policy rate of interest, and the extra .profits should be devoted to the. cheapening of freight rates and the improvement of the rates of. pay and conditions of work of the employees. PAIR STANDARD OF LIVING. Alluding to tho order of ■ reference, Mr. Connelly submitted that the first question tho board should determine was what was a fair standard of living for the men in the service. He intimated that the main claim of the society was that the 44-hour working week which hitherto had existed in tho Railway Service should bo restored, without, any reduction being effected in the present weekly rates of pay. The Department's counter-claims are summarised as follow :—

Tho elimination of payment of special rates for night work in the traffic branch, which does not come within the overtime hours; elimination of provision for rate and a half payment to maintenance men between 6 p.m. and_6 a.m.; ordinary time worked in the locomotive workshops between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. to bo paid for at ordinary rates; time worked-on Sunday as part of the ordinary working week to be paid for at oi'dinary rates; double rate payment on Sovereign's Birthday, Labour Day, Good Friday, and- Christmas Day to bo regarded as sufficient remuneration, and that the' practice of adding to the annual leave be discontinued ; the special allowance paid to horse-drivers engaged in shunting duties to be discontinued ; the maximum .proportion of apprentices to journeymen in tho workshops to be increased. |