LOCOMOTIVE CREWS' CONDITIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 25769, 16 April 1946, Page 10

LOCOMOTIVE CREWS' CONDITIONS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Mr Semple's remarks on the patience of the locomotive men during the past few years read well, but do not in any way alleviate their conditions. The reply that the guards work as long or longer hours without complaint counts for little as they do not have to work nor have to show the constant vigilance of engine crews. The fireman of the express from invercargill to Dunedin, for instance, shovels five and a-half tons in a run of three and a-half hours, in addition to his other duties. With good-quality coal this would be reduced to three and a-half tons. It is not uncommon for shifts to extend fiOm 12 to even 14 and 16 hours, this without a meal other than a lunch the men take \vith them, and they are even refused time to have a cup of tea. Qutside employers would be prosecuted for working men under these conditions, and I understand that bus drivers' shifts are limited to 10 hours. The cheese-paring policy is almost unbelievable. At two of the depots in this district, Balclutha and Palmerston, where the crews are sometimes waiting for a short time on their return trains, they are required to do labouring work such as filling coal tubs—this in the middle of the night and in the open, in all kinds of weather. Even when the locomotive men are off duty they are not free and can be called to work at any time. Sometimes men will he required to come on duty at an hour's notice and run a special goods train, say to Invercargill. When they arrive they perhaps are unable to get a bed, and have at times had to sleep in a railway carriage. These are only some of the complaints, and there are numerous others, such as half an hour or more correspondence on completion of shift, to be done in their own time. All studying for such a responsible job has to be done in their own time, with scarcely any encouragement from tlio department, and so ou.—l am, etc., April 15. Ex-Engine Driver.