REPLY TO R.T.A.

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 93, 17 October 1944, Page 6

REPLY TO R.T.A.

INTERIM SUBMISSIONS

Submissions opposing the claim by ■'_ the Railway Tradesmen's Association i for an increase of 6d an hour in the t wage rates of railway tradesmen and apprentices were presented to the _ Railways Industrial Tribunal yester- i day afternoon by Mr. K. G. Reid, ad- c vocate for the Railways Department, i In view of the length of the associa- ( tion's case and the statistical detail in- \ volved. he asked for time for the De- \ partment to prepare a fuller reply, and \ this was granted, the: tribunal ad- , journing until tomorrow morning. The Department's statement set out \ the steps by which the present rate of 2s 10£ dan hour for a competent railway tradesman was .reached in October, 1943, following-the introduction ( >of the 40-hour week in 1936. This' j final adjustment, it was stated, placed the railway rate a halfpenny an hour , in advance of the Arbitration Court's ''■ standard rate of 2s 9d an hour, which ; had remained unaltered since 1937. ; The rate for the "uhder-rate" railway ' tradesman had been <increased to 2s ' 9d an hour in October, 1943, and to 2s 9&d an hour in ' April last. Some ' special rates were paid to particular classes of tradesman. Generally speaking, railway tradesmen had substantial counterparts, in outside industry. In this respect they differed from railway employees whose work was closely connected with train' operations, such as -enginedrivers, guards, surfacemen, and the like. It was submitted that in determining the" rate of pay of railway tradesmen regard must be had to the wages prescribed in the relevant in- ' dustrial awards. • The management opposed the R.T.A. claim to the extent asked, on the ground that a standard rate of 3s 4|d an hour for a 40-hour week for railway tradesmen would' be too high when compared with the Court's standard rate for a 40-hour week, the various rates prescribed in industrial awards, and the rates for tradesmen prescribed in the Essential Building yVorks Labour Legislation Modification Order for a 48-hour week. There ■were, however,. grounds upon which some increase might be conceded, this being a matter which the Department's assessor had been authorised to discuss at the appropriate stage of the proceedings. POSITION OF APPRENTICES. With regard to apprentices, it was suggested that the reason why rates of Remuneration had remained substantially unaltered as compared with rates payable in 1929 was that the rates in the railway service had always been in advance of the rate provided for in apprenticeship orders of the Arbitration Court. To grant the claim would mean an average weekly wage oyer five years of £3 3s lOd, whereas the average weekly payment provided ior in recent apprenticeship orders for the engineering trade was £1. 15s 7d. _A survey of apprenticeship orders anade by the Court during the last ifive years and still in force showed that out of a total of 28 orders only two provided for a higher average •weekly wage than that at present payable to railway apprentices. The Defiartment's practice was to pay a ower scale of wages to apprentices than those payable to other juniors, the reason being that apprentices received a substantial increase in pay on completion of their apprenticeship, •when they proceeded immediately to the tradesmen's rate of pay. They also received a trade training which -was a valuable asset throughout their "working life, and were not bound to remain with the Department on completion of their apprenticeship. ' The increases claimed would, if granted, mean commencing rates for apprentices living at home of Is 4£d an hour (equal to £2 16s 8d a week, after including cost-of-living allow- . ance) and £3 3s 4d a week for apprentices living away from home. The highest commencing award rate known to the management for an apprentice was £1 7s 7d a week, including cost-of-living increases. .The approximate cost of granting all railway'tradesmen and apprentices an additional 6d an. hour would be £261,400 a year, based on the number •of staff employed -on; August. 19, 1944.