RAILWAY SERVANTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 188, 27 July 1911, Page 2

RAILWAY SERVANTS

THE IB GRIE VAN CE S. Dunedin, July 26. The conference of delegates of the Railway Officers’ institute which recently sat at Dunedin have formulated the grievances of the, first grade, and have embodied these in a petition to Parliament. Among the clauses are the following : - That positions in the railway service winch have been reduced in status during the last, few years shall be restored, and that the. Act be amended so as to provide that railway officers shall not be less efficiently remunerated than officers of the Post and Telegraph Department.

That, notwithstanding the fact that the traffic on the railways has hicreised considerably during the last few years, the Department is in many instances requiring officers in a lower grade to perform the duties and accept the responsibilities of officers in a higher grade at a lower rate of remuneration than was payable in the higher grade ; consequently, efficient officers of long and faithful service are deprived by the Department of promotion which they are rightly entitled to. thus causing dissatisfaction and unrest amongst the officers, who feel that the Department is not carrying out the spirit intended by the Act. That railway officers shdll receive the same annual leave as officers in the Post and Telegraph Department, and that sick leave shall not be deducted from the annual leave, or. in the alternative, that railway officers shall receive the same annual leave, the same sick leave, and the same payment for overtime as officers of the Post and Telegraph Department. That railway officers be paid for all work performed on Sundays at same rates as those paid to officers

of the Post and Telegraph Department.

That the Act be amended so as to provide that the Department and the officers be equally represented on the Appeal Board. That the board be presided over by a Judge of the Supreme Court, and that the decisions of the board shall be final.