SHORTER HOURS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 37, 12 August 1930, Page 8

SHORTER HOURS

AND LESS PAY

GOODS SHED EMPLOYEES

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") j AUCKLAND, This Day. All tho casual hands, 73 in number, employed in tho Auckland inward and outward railway goods sheds received notice yesterday that they would no longer be treated as "permanent casuals" with a guarantee of 48 hours' work weekly, but would be placed on tho list of '' omergency casuals'' and called upon when required. Tho men receive a wago of Is lOd an hour, and the, guarantee has assured them of a wago of £4 Ss a week.

Tho effect of yesterday's notice will be to institute a systom of short time under which presumably all will be troatcd alike. Tho alternative would have -been to discharge, say, 20 of tho men. " ' , Goods traffic lately has been slack, as it usually is at this time of the year, consequently the staffs of some country stations have been reduced and a certain number of permanent porters transferred to the Auckland goods sheds. It has thus become necessary to cut down tho shed staffs, and the Department has chosen the short-time method of doing so. Somo of the men affected have been "permanent casuals" for many years. Thoro is a good prospect that when the spring arrives and the dairying season gets into fu'l swing, tho position will very largely right itself, and there will bo enough work to yield the men nearly, if not quite, the former guaranteed wage.