THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19124, 16 September 1925, Page 12

THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

SECOND DIVISION MEN. PRIVILEGES RESTORED. NIGHT RATES AND SUNDAY PAY. [BY TELBGRAPH.-~O\7N correspondent.] WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Commencing last Sunday, important concessions have been made to second division members in tho Railway Department, which will to a sertain extent secure some of the privileges lost during the 1924 strike. The Railway Board, with the concurrence of the Minister for Railways, has agreed that guards, porters, with tho exception of tablet porters, shunters, signalmen, storemen and train examiners are to receive time and a-quarter for all time worked between tho hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. This is a reinstatement of the night rates which were lost after the strike and is regarded by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants as a very tangible benefit. Tho society, in negotiating with tho management, was also successful in securing double time for all time worked on Sundays.. Another concession is that the difficulty duo to intermittent working of short periods is to bo overcome by providing that railvvaymen called on duty aro to be paid a minimum of four hours. It is understood that the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants mado a strong request for an all-round increaso in wages of Is 6d a day, which, it contends, is in accordance with tho statistical position of the cost of living, compared with the position when this amount was taken off the men's wages, by the operation of the Public Expenditure Adjustment Act. The Government, however, firmly declined to consider increases in wages until the financial results of tho new railway policy have been tested.