RAILWAY SHOPS

Evening Post, Issue 98, 27 April 1936, Page 10

RAILWAY SHOPS

POLICY OF BOARD

CASE FOR EMPLOYEES

OFFICIAL STATEMENT

•The head office of the New Zealand Railway' Tradesmen's Association made the following statement to "The Post" today on behalf of railway workshop employees: — In the Press report dealing with the debate in the Legislative Council on the Railways Amendment Bill, some of Ihe remarks credited to the Hon. R. Masters are so liable to create a misleading effect in the public mind that we deem it our duty to clarify the position, and to the best of our knowledge give the actual facts of the mat- j ter as they exist. The Hon. R. Masters is reported to j have made the following statement: — "Some four or five hundred men were temporarily employed in the railway workshops just prior to Christmas to renovate carriages, and when they were notified by the Railways Board that their services were no longer required, the Minister of Railways intervened and said the men were to be kept on. This was done and these men are still employed, which means with a wage of £4 per week for each man an additional expenditure of £ 100,000 per annum, which will have to be borne by the Consolidated Fund."

Now, the four or five hundred men referred to had been regularly employed in the workshops for the greater part of last year carrying out the ordinary repairs to rolling stock, and were given their notice in compliance with the Railways Board's policy of dispensing with the services of hundreds of casuals just prior to Christmas each year, thereby breaking their service and preventing them qualifying for annual leave on pay. The practice was then to re-employ these men shortly after the Christmas vacation and retain them in constant employment until the eve of the following festive season. Regarding the fact that these men were kept on and are still employed in the workshops, it appears advisable to explain what these men are doing, not so much from what was said by the Hon. Mr. Masters but rather from the inference contained in his statement. The facts are these men are working at high pressure at the present time, and have been doing so ever since -their notices were cancelled. They are kept busy in repairing rolling stock in an effort to provide sufficient vehicles to transport the goods offering. The shortage of wagons has become so serious that these men along with the regular staff were kept working throughout the recent Easter holidays, and have also . been working overtime continuously since then, yet the shortage still remains acute.

This shortage has become very pronounced by the fact that although hundreds of the type of wagons used for the carriage of coal, wool, phosphates, etc., have been condemned as unfit for further use no replacements have.been made within recent years. In the light of these facts the' statement that the payment of £100,000 in wages to the men is so much lost to the Consolidated Fund cannot be established when we take into account the service rendered by these men for the wages they receive.

The Government's action in retaining the services of these men has justified itself by the fact of the shortage of the profit-making vehicles they produce. We publish these facts iri an endeavour to prevent misunderstandings such as we think will undoubtedly arise from the Hon. Mr. Masters's statement, and to show our fellowworkers employed in mines, fertiliser works, etc., why many of them are deprived of more regular work owing to the shortage of railway wagons to transport the goods they produce.

We have every confidence in leaving it to the public to judge at whose door the responsibility for this unsatisfactory situation must be laid.