LOCOMOTIVE DRIVERS' ASSOCIATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16479, 19 February 1914, Page 2

LOCOMOTIVE DRIVERS' ASSOCIATION.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE. The annual conference of the New Zealand Locomotive Engine-drivers, Firemen's and Cleaners' Association was resumed at the Trades Hall on Tuesday. It was decided' to advocate that there should be a minimum nine hours day for drivers and firemen on shunting engines, it being held that this class of 'work 1 is of an- arduous character. It was stated that, on main line work, .engine-drivers and firemen were called upon to work fourteen and fifteen hours, getting time off the next day, and that those engaged on shunting engines worked ten hours. There is no rule prohibiting drivers and firemen working beyond nine hours a day, and the decision arrived at is to endeavour to limit the hours of work in on© day to nine. It was decided also to recommend that when a member is charged with an offence he shall be allowed to peruse all reports, statements and recommendations bearing on his case; also that he shall bo allowed to cross-ex-amine all who have made verbal statements, and be given an opportunity to reply to all written statements and reports before anything is determined in relation to the offence wherewith he is charged. Under present conditions, it was stated, the member concerned is not able to reply to or to combat many allegations made against him by those interested. As these reports and statements have a distinct bearing on the charges laid against members, it was held that the right of the final reply to all statements and reports should. be given to the accused man. It is generally supposed that confidential reports figure largely in present methods.

Another decision was to make overtures- to the .Department to increase the pay for work done on Sunday? and to bring into line the pay for > work done on Good Friday and Christmas Day, as is done in industries outside the railways; and to ask that a loco, member of the Second Division should bo appointed on the Punishment Board, in view of the fact that it is alleged that • no consideration ie shown to members who appeal against decisions involving-finest under £2> Jn which case,. :it ■ was alleged, th"e Estate-: mente of superior officers are taken without question. An executive dinner was held in the evening; about twenty delegates attending. The chairman (Mr J. Henderson) proposed the toast of the Executive Council, and said it had the complete confidence of members throughout New Zealand. The management realised that.. the executive, was out for .fair play and a olean deal,. and though not always successful, a fair measure of success had attended its efforts. The locomotive driver was first regarded as a mere machine, but chiefly, through fatalities the human element had begun to be recognised. In New Zealand they were asking for better conditions, but, they were offering in exr change improved service. .... lii reply Mr S. Kennedy, the Council's president,., said... they had efficient men at the head of departments, and if the Association was putting forward a grievance it must be a genuine one, or it would not go through, and by attempting to get a spurious grievance heard they were doing themselves an injury. Several other toasts wero honoured,, and. musical, items., were contributed, during.the evening.. ; V , • i*~::x. YESTERDAY'S PROCEEDINGS. ' At the continuation of the conference yesterday it was decided to ask the Department to exempt cleaners from military training, on account of the nature of the work, but such exemption to indicate in no way that those exempted are anti-militarists. It was contended that the irregular, erratic and unduly "long hours that cleaners work rendered it impossible for them to conform with the requirements of the Defence /Vet. ' This was admitted by some officers of the Railway De-r partment, but they had no option but to impose the punishments provided in the Act for contravention of the Act or the regulations under it. In many cases cleaners and firemen, after working continuously.--through the night, were asked to break their sleep to attend drill. Owihp- to the night shift impending after drill, to call upon cleaners and firemen to attend drill was a distinct hardship,' and it was a physical impossibility for them to conform with the requirements of the Defence Act, and to comply with the erratic shifts the men are called to work. It was further held that, the dirt and squalor of a cleaner's work, and the reversal of Nature's laws by. turning night into day had an injuri-"-ous effect on the-physique of the Jads, especially at the sensitive age between boyhood and manhood. To break into the fitful day slumber to attend drill, it'was contended, amounted to absolute persecution. Cleaners complain bitterly of''the'injustices they suffered under the Defence Act, especially the threats of being fined for failing to attend drill. The conference was unanimous in its 'decision to represent the hardships of the locomotive Territorials and"to apply to the Railway; Department- for exemption or at least' to make such arrangements as would mitigate the hardships complained of.

It was decided to recommend that ft widow, being supported by a bachelor son in the locomotive service should be given the same privileges .is a locomotive man's wife, whether the widow is the housekeeper or not. Under the present railway regulations vwSses and other concessions arc given to a locomotive man's wife, or, in the event of him ' being.-,.'a widower, 'to his housekeeper, but this does not apply to the widowed mother of a locomotive man. and the conference decided to attempt to bring the widowed mother into line with the wife and housekeeper.

A length discussion ensued respecting a case in which a locomotive engine-driver was reduced in position and pav as the result of a charge he was cal'ed upon to answer in the Polico Court, the ease being ultimately dismissed'■on the merits of the evidence adduced. This case, it was contended; was identical with' the care cf the English driver, Knox,- who was dis : missed by thecompariy which employed him, ail "action which precipitated an industrial crisis. Subsequently, Knox's conviction was quashed by a higher court "and he was reinstated. In the case dhaissed by thecemference it was stated that no Stigma"attached'to the man's character,'and that the law of the land exonerated a. man who established his innocence, and it was held that no punishment as the result of the roan's trial should bo inflicted by the Railwav Department. It was decided to ask that cleaners should be given facilities to wash ana tidy themselves before leaving work. Tho conference adjourned till 9 a.m. ' to-day.