TRAMWAY WAGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22256, 2 November 1935, Page 17

TRAMWAY WAGES

RESTORATION IN FORCE EXTENT OF UNDERTAKING COMMENT BY MANAGER The recent decision of the Auckland Transport Board to restoro wages to the 1931 level operates from to-day. Commenting on the position yesterday, the manager, Mr. A. E. Ford, emphasised how the hoard had been influenced in what it had been able to do by the volume of the revenue of the undertaking, which had been very substantially reduced during the depression. Mr. Ford said the board had on its stafF a total of 1058 permanent employees. Of this number 76 were in the permanent way department, 20 in the distribution department, 230 in the carsheds and workshops, 658 in the traffic department, and 74 on the clerical and general office staff. The extent of the organisation was not always appreciated. The wages bill of the undertaking last year, for instance, was no less than £260,500. The revenue earned was £523,000, and the miles run were 5,878,036. The passengers carried numbered 44,869,697, which meant that Auckland's entire population was car-

ried more than 200 times in a year. Mr. Ford added that, with regard to the general staff, the rates of wages varied from Is lOd to 2s ljd an hour, with time and a-half for all work beyond eight hours a day. Some skilled artisans received 2s 6d an hour. The hourly rates now being paid by the

board equalled, or were in excess of, thoso paid prior to 1931, when the first wages reductions were applied. The board had restored 50 per cent of the 10 per cent cut last February, and the restoration of the balance would involve a considerable sum. Mr. Ford drew attention to the recent statement of the chairman of the board, Mr. H. G. R. Mason, M.P., that it was a source of satisfaction to the board, which would strive to satisfy all reasonable claims for better fares and good wages, that it had been paying the men employed on its trams an hourly rate believed to bo the highest ever paid in a tramway system in New Zealand.

A schedule of the hourly rates paid by the board to its employees shows that the 1931 rates have been attained. There is an improvement in the case of tho traffic department, the rates being:—l93s, conductors, first 12 months, Is lOJd; after 12 months, Is Hid; motormcn, first 12 months, Is llid; after 12 months, 2s Oid. An additional penny is paid when broken shift duty is worked. 1931: Conductors, first three months, Is 9d; next nine months, Is lOd; after 12 months, Is lid; motormen, first 12 months, Is lid; after 12 months, 2s.