MEN OF THE MAILROOM

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2338, 7 January 1926, Page 11

MEN OF THE MAILROOM

overtime: minus meal money. A SENSE OF INJUSTICE. Of all th e folk who serve the public at the season when everyone is wishing everyone else good cheer and moat j people are holiday making, the men of the Post and Telegraph Department merit many a grateful thought. And, however imagination may picture the mailroom of a big Post Office—the clearing house of human hopes and fears, expectancy and all its after, math, one’s sympathies cannot but go to the man who toils well nigh to the limit of endurance that these millions of letters and parcels shall deliver their message without delay. Reccnt- • ly the Department decided to reward | the staff for Its additional work at 'such rush times as Christmas by the payment of overtime, but according to the latest issue of the “Katipo,” this reward is left-handed in its application.

To quote the ‘‘Katipo:’’ “A man, for instance, is shown on the duty sheet for 1 p.m. to clear duty for a certain -week. As an English mall is due, he is ordered on at 8 a.m. on the Monday. He Is given 2/- for his dinner and allowed 45 minutes to partake of it. He provides hla own tea and works till 9 or 10 p.m. On Tuesday a mall is due from Sydney and the process is repeated. On "Wednesday there is a lot of, cleanlng-up work to be dine, so he is ordered on at 9 a.m., Is given another 2/-, and again works until 9 P.m. At the end of the week he finds he has completed 48 hours, duty, and naturally applies for three hours' overtime, to which he is Justly entitled. The Department has in all paid him 6/- as meal allowance simply to suit its own convenience, as it is not always advisable from a departmental point of view to allow its officers to proceed to their homes for meals. “So far so good, and no complaints, but here’s where the wonderful system of deduction comes in. After the lapse of a couple of days the applicant’s overtime slip is returned to him with a memo, attached** stating that the, amount due is 7/6 minus 6/-. As the remainder is insignificant and ho is expected to exercise a little give and take, he Is not entitled to anything. Can anyone Imagine the result If this were tried on any outside organisation ?” The mallroom staff at Auckland claim that matters are more congested and harder for the men there than at Wellington* and that for some months past the staff has been working at high pressure for long hours. Prom Sunday, December 20, till the Thursday (Christmas Eve) the mailropm men worked from 7 a.m. till 10 p.hi. at top speed, and they now resent the dedutcion of meal money from the overtime they were promised. They point somewhat cynically to the remarks of the secretary, Mr. Markman, at the smoke concert which wound-up the P. and T. conference in August, to the effect that officials generally should look upon the administration as their “official father" and take all their troubles to “dad” from whom they would receive a fair and Just hearing. The “Kiatlpo” adds “the aforementioned troubles wpr 0 placed before the Department over two months ago, and the result so far has been only a sphinx-like silence.’*