SICK BENEFITS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 117, 13 November 1926, Page 10

SICK BENEFITS

RAILWAYMEN'S PROPOSAL

DISCUSSED BY A.S.R.S. PRESIDENT

The proposal put forward by the Railways Board for the establishment of a sick benefit fund to be contributed to by the members of the second division of the railway service has aroused much interest.

The president of th,e Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, Mr. O. T. Carlyle, stated this morning that the establishment of a society to assist those who were stricken down by accident or illness was a work that by its nature must appeal to practically everyone, and it certainly appeals very strongly to his executive. "The opening paragraphs of the Eailway Board's message," he said, "states, 'Sickness is one of the most common misfortunes of life, producing, enforced idleness and consequent loss of pay.' To state the case as it affects our members, the paragraph should have continued 'to all members of the second division of the New Zealand Railway Service.'v I may say that the members of the second division receive accident pay only; that is, they receive the amount of 58 per cent, of their earnings over a calculated period as provided for under the clauses of the Workers' Compensation for Accidents Act. The members of the first division alone receive sick pay.

" The idea of establishing a sick benefit society to operate over the whole of the second division is not a netv one, but it is a work of sufficient magnitude to warrant tho utmost caution in initiating, for if it is not established on a thoroughly sound basis, it is doomed to failure. At the interview we had with the board last August this matter 'vvas discussed in relation to our request that "all members incapacitated through accident or sickness be paid full pay for. the first, three months." The board had no hesitation in refusing on the ground.that it simply obeyed the law, their powers being fixed by statute. Subsequent' debate on *he matter disclosed the willingness of the board to subsidise amounts subscribed by the sufferers' fellow work mates, and the board expressed itself as desirous of seeing the whole question dealt with comprehensively by the establishment of a ( sick benefit society. Evidently ,'"' tho board has power to subsidise in the direction indicated, but none to pay the 42 per cent.' which the man who suffers from accident is short of—a peculiar state of affairs, which, I think, should be remedied.

"However," he continued, "my executive has gone into the question. We as an executive have no power to establish a sick benefit society such >as suggested. That can only be done by the Biennial Conference, which meets in February next, but we have made it possible for the matter to be dealt with at. conference. I may say that such a society as -that contemplated can only be brought into being by either the A.S.R.S. or the Railway Department itself. By that I mean that to establish it successfully, a large sum of money would have to be set aside, and my society is the only one of the railway unions that is financially strong enough to do that. ' So far we have no knowledge of what amount of subsidy may bo expected from the board, and until proposals are further advanced it would perhaps be hardly fair to expect the board to definitely name a sum We are willing to do all we can to aid the sick and suffering, while at the same time safeguarding the interests of the members of our organisation "It may surprise you to learn," Mr. Carlylo remarked to the interview^ "how backward the State is in regard to sick pay to its railway employees, when compared with the European countries where State railways operate In Norway, Belgium, Austria, and Italy employees off duty on account of sickness are paid; in most of the countries mentioned it is full pay, in some cases fqr a year. God's Own Country pays its second division employees nothing."