PUBLIC WORKS EMPLOYEES

Maoriland Worker, Volume 11, Issue 475, 21 April 1920, Page 8

PUBLIC WORKS EMPLOYEES

Deputation to Minister

Mr., P. Fraser, M.P., has arranged (bat the proposed deputation of Public Works' Employees organised by the New Zealand Workers' Union shall meet the Minister of Public Works on May 10. At the request of the Minister made through Mr. Fraser, the Head Office of the Union has forwarded the following communication to him as an indication of the nature of the men's grievances:—

Mr. Fraaer has placed before mc your request for a statement of the grievances complained of by the workers on Public Works which they wish to lay before you by deputation on May 10.

Your Department has had already t lengthy communication from Messrs. J. E. MacManus and S. Boreham, President and Secretary of the Otago Branch of the New Zealand Workers' Union, setting forth in detail the complaints of the workers employed on the Chatto Creek irrigation works and the Clyde-Cromwell railway conBtruction works, and making remedial suggestions. Shopkeepers' accounts were alao forwarded by these officers of my Union, proving that Mm prices Charged Tor everyday couuuoilities 1.0 the employees on i.luw workii were (substantially greater Uiau those which urban workers have iij pay. Their letter was dated February 20 la«t.

Briefly, Uie men's case is as follows: Thai the wages paid pricm- to the increase granted by the .Department about a fortnight ago were based on the average cost of living as calculated by the (.Jovermiient Statistician [or the four duel' centres of populalion. Ah the prices an; considerably higher at these worky than in ilm towns the fixture of wages at the. town level is an injustice which, imposes a lower standard o( life on the public ■works' employee:}, aud given them an juadequate remuneration. The ioinedy for this is an increased wajje, arm If, miiat be more considerable than ciitu conceded recently, The morn concerned suggest that the minimum Ue placed at lli/- a day, uiul tliaf ihl-i figure 3hall Include payment, for tiin>j occupied In travelling f» -wd from their work. With the pvlor-.i of many commodities not mentioned in (lie Statistician's calculations still soaring, and in all■pro3puev likely io continue so, my Union is of opinion (hac tin:; figure Js not excessive, -..aid that you, as Minister, cannot possibly assert that it. will provide more lh;m rho liareat comfort to those who are toilhij; in all sorts of. outlandish places l'O'* the convenience of. tin. . New Zealand public.

That this demand for LO/- a day ii even less than it may appear is evident from the fact that, as above intlicated, if will include a payment, for travelling time, whidi your Depart - Itienl. dots uol make now. In thin, the Department fails to observe a cuiidition wliicJi tin* Arbitration Court lias imposed on large nu/nbers 01' priv■{Ut? employers. Under suburban clauses of many awards, workers in towns are paid travelling time while , being conveyed, or, if they v.'nli;. at. a rate which roughly works out at oik.' hour's pay lor every tluee mites walked. If. such clauses arc lair avid just ■with respect to private employment. there seems to be little reason why Government Departments .should not be bound by them, and we therefore suggest that either a special rate should be fixed for travelling time. or that the daily rate of wages be made high enough to cover time so Bpent. I might point out. to you I hat at the Chatto Creek works the men have to walk three miles tv their place of employment, and thsif Ihiij compel.; them to ri.4e at v..".0 to fenuble them to- cook their mentis and to reach work at the starting Lime, while at the Clyde-Cromwell works the men cannot be sure of provisions unless? they live at Cromwell, and residence there, of course, entails a loiik walk to work. Recognition of tin; injustice Oil expecting these men to travel :;iu:li distances to work without payment has been made by your Department on representation i'rom officers of my Union, but the concession granted. 1/- a day, is regarded as quite inadequate. Payment for travelling time should be made at the lixed hourly rates.

As au alternative to the demand fo"> IG/- a day, the Uuiou proposes that the Government make purchases o£ goods as ordered by the men employed, transport these goods free over the railways, and establish depots at the various camps to organise their distribution. We urge this because if <the. Government, po'rsiat-? iv payiuK ithe men a wage bused on towu prices ■the commodities tboy need should b'-\ made available to them n/. town price, , ) At present the Union is following the policy of ordering goods in bulk from [Wholesalers on the order of the men, and of delivering these to them. In fthis way middlemen are cut out, and the prices kept down to something jliko a reasonable level. The Union, however, considers that this is the .Government's duty, and if "this Iβ admitted by your Department, and you are. successful in inducing the Railway pepartment in carrying goods free, .the prices will be lower still, and the •value of the prevailing wage will be [Increased. That the Public. Works' jiemployees are exploited by country ijJUppkeepera is proved not only by t&e accounts with which your Department has been supplied, but by the /of the Government candidate in the Stratford by-olection, Mr. Jilne. This, gentleman propose! (as in one of Jjio electioneering Speeches) that to protect the employees from exploitation a Government •pauteen should be attached to the

various works for the sale of goods at reasonable prices. If this wer/e done, it would meet another complaint made that, the Department was hampered in its duty to assist the men by one of its own' regulations that "private enterprise was not to be interfered with,"'and it would enable the Government to dispense with still another regulation that "goods must not be sold at a loss." I£ such a canteen is installed my Union would suggest that it either adopt the course of charging cost prices only for goods sold, or if it charges current prices, the profits, in the same manner as operated in connection with soldiers' canteens, should be returned to the men who dealt with it. Particularly we urge that this canteen, if established,.should stock coal and all sorts of fuel, because on some of the works the difficulty of getting fuel of any description last winter was so great as to cause real hardship, and is now causing much anxiety. /fhe Chatto Creek workers, for instance, have to walk seven miles on Sundays for the purpose of cutting timber for use during the week.

Another grievance is that when the men work overtime the overtime rate is based not on the full wage paid to the men but on the wage less the bonus. At the time we fist drew your attention to the conditions under which the men wore working, this meant thai, instead of being paid overtime on the rate of 1/7 Iliey were paid on the rule of I/;?. This appears to us a niggard policy fur the Government to follow. If overtime is not properhyremuneraled except, at a ■•|Ule over and above I hat paid for ordinary time, and ordinary lime is worth 1/7, it seems foreign Io the spirit in which Ihe Avar bonus was granted to disregard if. and calcula'e Hie overtime on Hie pre-war wage. Such parsimony is hardly credilnble in tli'.j (iiivernmeni, and we think itshould lake this opportunity of :u-t----iu;v more generously. 'Die coinplaiulH in reference io accommodation are widespread. This applies on nil ttie works where my I'ltioii ha: , , member:';. The ar.ec.ivimo.laiion :-.iipplled i: , . of the crudest, de-.--.:i 1 (til.rlr. ailit kluk.s ailuOSt e\eiy rOiiV.Miie.nce. II i-:, aboriginal and torn for 11 ►■•:'.:"!, Some attempt viii.a be t" improve it, The Cove.'unieiti should renew the legislation hy which il iv«nlates lite fiei.'omniodatiiiii provided bj i-liet-p owner.-, flaxmiil owners, and oiliers, and see wlietlhT ii could uol adapl; some ui'.il:--. |ii-o;h;ioii .■■. Io Hie particular fit.-:' oi ii.-; own eniployee.-!. II is cerlaliily liiiii: ior ;i more up-10-dato accdiiimodalion than \-- iii>w provided. L'dili in Qiti-ciisland nnd ?\ew South Wah-i , . worktvf; on all public work; , , of ciiiirftriirlioii iirti si*' ,, !!, baihiiit; , , wAshim:. and cooi>iug fafiliiies. and these ar li.vi: , .!. ;dioiilt! iii , provided hero. i\i I'.hattn Creok ilie tinarrying is done ;-ufii conditions as violate the QuarrieFi Arr. There is ioo mueli O'i •* J - - i)ti 1;h ii of Tor!.;. ;i!ttl the IIH-ll Mill e:cee;:-iio)ial i isk of ac-i:ident.- So lu-gligciii do.'S the Ueparl meul appear hi lliis matter thai the f'uioii" har. decided io proceed for heavy dani£i.w:; in the event of accident. At Cltauo Creek, too, wr- found that the fan for the wniilation of 'hn tun no I whs nor a : tallied to the ;ur |>ipi.>3, and tli:;t ronroiiueiiUy tht men wero workiiiK in foul nir. They were initially working Id chain away from the entrance to the tunnel, and were wo'rkinjc an eight-hour day at that. Where the air is foul they .should only work six hours at the pay for oighl. and thfit this was not being done indicates that the Department could be greatly more vigilant on behalf of the men's health as well as in the matter of just, payment. The law the Government administers | against private omployors in thir: con- j neciion could well bo allowed in operate on (.'.ov-nuiiH-iit v/ork;-. and (hat it whs not so at Chat to Creek was very | regrettable.

J In Nt'W South Wales and Queensland workers employed on all Public Wovk'- , . are allowed all gazetted holiday, cm full pay, and they an , ftiveil free carriage of goods over the railways. Our members, in accordance with a progressive interpretation of the wofds "living wage," consider that, these conditions should be conceded in New Zealand. This would enable the men and their families to enjoy a little variation of the monotonous conditions existing in the out-of-way places where they work. We also consider Ihal the privileges accorded both io railway men in Queensland and New South Wales and New Zealand in the matter o£ reduced fares for travel over the railways should bo extended to the Public Works' JOmployees, and we ask that you use your best endeavours to secure this. Willi respect to pay to teamsters: We fir., of opinion that Vl/C a day for the driver and an allowance- of: .S/C a d'ly for nych horee is not enough. In Diinedin the prevalent rate with local bodies for a driver and one horse i> 30/- a day. The latest award in Now South Wales provides that in tho Albury district the wages shall be 14/3 & day lor the driver, and 10/- a day fan each horse. In addition to this, the Government in under obligation Jo pay half the cost of. horse feed plus a shoeing allowance of 2/0 a week. In view of the present high price o£ horse feed, etc., my Union strongly urges'that a minimum of 30/----a i 1"!' should be the wage for a man and horse. In order to settle promptly the innumerable disputes which occur on the works my Union asks the Department to consider ways and meana of bringing the workers into closer touch with, the Department. In ' the letter sent to you by the Otago Branch , of my fTnion it is suggested that your Departmental oflicers in charge bf looal works should be empowered to

negotiate with the men. under their direction in order to conciliate differences, and bring about final settlements, but it has been put to us that jour local officers cannot act without first getting the view of the Head of the Department, and thus to solve this question it is necessary for the Union to have closer relationship with the Departmental control. Our ideal is to secure the direct representation of the Union on the Department, and through this to have more than the mere consultative capacity afforded us through deputations. This ideal is not altogether outside practical politics, because in the Old Country conceßsious have been made to it in the administration of the railways, the Railwayman's Union being given re* presentiilion on the controlling body. In our view administration in future should act through public bodies representing the workers directly concerned as well'as the community, instead of, as at the present, through a Department absolutely controlled by a Minister. If the Department jvill devise methods by which local disputes can be quickly settled and which give the particular workers affected some real voice in the regulation of their conditions, it will be in line with a generally felt aspiration among the workers, and it will do much to allay dissatisfaction.

My Union assures the Public Works Department that the above grievances ,'fe genuine, and are resulting in widespread discontent. This is proved by the strike of the Public Works' Employees at Huarau in North Auckland, by the threat o! the workers on the More Flood Protection Works to strike for higher wages, and by the unanimity with which this class ol worker in all parts of the country is joining the Union. The Union expects sympathetic treatment of these complaints to meet the legitimate requirement!; of the men, and it thinks that the New Zealand public owes it to us workers Io accede to Iheir demands. 1 may say I hat v canvass is no\V being made of the workers on Public Work.-? all over the country for Ihe purpose of t;ettinp, the men to slate (heir iTVievjnct-L'. in the hope or' bein.-. able to inform you fully "on iheir point of view. The information gathered will lie plai-ed' before you by the deputation on May 10, ami to make sure thai you will set the fads first hand the I'iiioii is organism;', a deptii ation which will consist, predominantly of the actual Public Works' employees themselves. In the meantime, my Union sincerely ''joper; that you will give these matters your serious consideration and that you will bo convinced of the necessiiy for material improvements. (Signed ARTHUR COOK,, Acting Secretary, >. T .Z. Work em' Union,