N.S.W. RAILWAYMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18021, 21 February 1922, Page 7

N.S.W. RAILWAYMEN.

INQUIRY INTO 1917 STRIKE.

JUSTICE EDMUNDS' REPORT.

RE-EMPLOYMENT PROPOSALS By Talegrauh—Press Association—Copyright. A. and N.Z. SYDNEY, Feb. 20. After an inquiry extending from October, 1920, Mr. Justice Edmunds, Royal Commissioner, has issued his report on the railway strike of 1917. He finds that the Railway Commissioners, in issuing the seniority regulations, exceeded the terms of the settlement reached after the strike, and that several of their acts in regard to employment of loyalists and volunteers were violations of tho terms of the settlement. Mr. Justice Edmunds declares that the charge of conspiracy between the commissioners and tho then Government to ignore the settlement is without foundation.

H» recommends that ex-strikers should be deemed ineligible for re-employment only on grounds of having taken a prominent part in the strike, having committed during the strike overt aots of sabotage, or intimidation, or having been guiltv of offensive language or conduct to railway employees, or for having avowed the adoption of militant unionism as a rule of conduct in the service. He makes numerous recommendations regarding the grading of loyalists, volunteers and re-engaged strikers, sustaining the recognition of the two former classes, and recommends that strikers now eligible or becoming eligible for re-employment be given preference for any vacancies. Other recommendations include that the commissioners should refrain from interference with the decisions of* the Appeal Board, that the Railway Act be amended to embody the decisions of tlie commission, that a board bo appointed to ensure such decisions being carried out, and that jurisdiction be given to the Arbitration Court to hear applications for redress of grievances by acts or omissions on the part of commissioners. The report says that although the Railway Act makes the commissioners

independent of interference by any outside authorities, ministerial, political, or otherwise, tho evidence disclosed at tempts to exercise such illegal outside pressure which the commissioners firmly withstood in some instances, but on other occasions submitted to.

Tho executive of the Railway Union passed a resolution expressing disappointment and indignation at the strike report. It calls on the Government to reinstate the men and restore seniority. The Chief Railway Commissioner states that he wilK carry out the recommendations of Mr. Justice Edmunds' railway report where they are consistent with tho duty of the Railway Commissioners.