BROKEN SHIFTS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 146, 21 June 1924, Page 11

BROKEN SHIFTS

IN RAILWAY SERVICE

A.S.R.S. SEEKS CHANGES IN

REGULATIONS

A. number of claims bearing upon the hours of employment of various workers in the Railway Service were discussed be-

fore the Railway Inquiry Board yester

day. Only about one-third of the seventy-two demands submitted by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants have so far been considered, and it is apparent that the inquiry will run into a second week.

Mutual agreement was reached between ■ the. Department and tho. Society that when a guard is booked off duty between shifts for less than eight hours at his home station he shall receive two hours' standing time. The society presented a claim that booking mcii off at their home station should be abolished. Mr. Connelly; A.S.E.S. advocate, said that instances had occurred in which guards had'been put off shift between return suburban runs. Sometimes work was found about the station in the meantime, but otherwise the men were put off and lost pay. The society asked that the men should be given continuous employment, and that work should "be found for them. Mr. H. H. Sterling, Departmental representative, said it. was a question of broken' shifts, . winch were inseparable from any transport industry. The Department made a bona fide effort to find work where possible, and' to confine broken shifts to. reasonable limits. Mi. Justice Frazer: "What would you say is a reasonable time?" "About two hours, including mealtime," Mr. Sterling replied. In some cases, lie said; work could bo found for one man, but not for two. It was all a matter of give and take, and the giving was in thcfiivour of the Department, for .it did its best to meet the men. He submitted that it would be unreasonable to expect the Department to do more. It would be placing an unwarranted tax on the industry to compel-it to pay for idle time. Mr. Conuelly appealed to the beard to give protection by prohibiting the department from playing "ducks and drakes" with the men's time. It should be possible to so organise the work that a man was riot booked off at his home station. Another shift question arose in the next clause, which asked-that all traffic men be allowed ten clear hours off duty before being again booked on. The idea, said Mr. Connelly, was to give the men a longer rest between shifts.. The break at present, was eight hours. Mr. Sterling said that the instructions already provided that wherever possible members of the Second Division were to be booked off for ten hours. It was another case in which the society was seeking a rigid rule, .where elasticity must exist. STANDING TIME AT FOREIGN ' .STATIONS. A definition was sought by the society "iii"'r"egafd tcf standing time at-for-eign stations,' Mr. Connelly contending that an; agreement entered into in 1918, providing for payment at a Hat rate for standing; lime,, had been violated by t.ho. Department.- As a result of the interpretation, put'upon, the agreement by Jie Department, the men were [ aid for three hours irrespective of the amount of standing lime,, they were being robbed of pay to which they were rightly entitled, and he suggested that the board should make'an order to have what,was duo paid up. ; Mr. Justice Frazer: ".We can make no orders, only recommendations." ■ Mr. Sterling denied the .alleged violation. AVlren a Bill to'"give,effect to the agreement was before Parliament in 1919 the society appeared before the Railways. Committee of the House, and repudiated the arrangement, which therefore went by the board: The whole question was whether the Department should or should not book a man off at foreign stations. That depended upon whether there was work available. • SHUNTERS' HOURS.

The next clause dealt with sought a six-hour day for shunters. In support of the demand, the society's representative referred to the responsibilities of the shunter, and said that the mental ,t;kl physical strain were such that, with loTig hours, he was.liable to suffer from fatigue, and accidents might occur through that fact. The majority of accidents occurred at the end of the shifts, and the reason was the fact that the worker was more of less.exhausted, and his brain less alert. The shunter was continuously calculating in his head tonnages, times, etc., and it-was well known ; in the railway yards that'it '.was not advisablo to speak. to a head shunter at such a time. Furthermore, the shunter was always liable, by the nature of his work, to meet with an accident, for his work was highly dangerous.

Mr. Sterling deprecated the extreme case made out by Mr. Connelly, who would have the board understand thatall the porter 3 were working all tho time at break-neck speed about the yards. They should take a simple case. In respect to the graduation of their pay, the shunters were already treated as well as their responsibilities warranted. Ho submitted there was no evidenco to show that they suffered in health or otherwise under the present system. The society asked that in view of the tablet porters' hours being 48 and 50 respectively their iime be counted as continuous, without deduction for meals, Mr. Sterling contended that there was no justification for differentiation in favour of tablet porters, MEAL HOURS, The definite fixing of meal hours was sought by the society in n clause asking that the times should be from 7 to 8 a.m., noon to 1 p.m., and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; that there he only one booking off in any one shift j and that the minimum meal time bo 30 minutes and t!»» maximum one hour, Mr, Connelly said tho Department did not even recognise tho meal hours sot down, in their own regulations, Mr. Sterling said that the agreement on the point was qualified by the words "as far as practicable." It was not always possible to adhere to tho provision, but the Department, did so as far as it could.

After further points had bpen discussed, tho board adjourned till to-day.