THE TRAMWAY DEMANDS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6488, 7 April 1908, Page 4

THE TRAMWAY DEMANDS.

The great advantage which attaches to having industrial disputes submitted to the Conciliation Boards and Arbitration Courts of the Dominion is that ail the evidence comes out, and the public is enabled to judge as to the reasonableness or otherwise of the 'claims submitted. In instances where cases are thought capable of. being settled by private conference another course is followed. The press is excluded. There can be no objection to excluding the press from conferences affecting private disputes, but where the ratepayers are concerned as a party to a proposed contract, the wisdom of excluding the reporters may well be questioned. This brings us to a consideration of the Wellington tramway employees’ demands. It has been demonstrated that these employees are receiving very mudh higher wages than those in any other part of the Dominion; that the conditions under which they labour are not unduly arduous; and that' the allowances for uniforms, overtime, free transport to and from work, and time for signing on and off ar© on a.liberal scale. It has been shown further that the position of conductor is so much coveted by tradesmen and others that the authorities are. pestered with applications for positions in this capacity, no fewer than three thousand names having been placed on ‘the books of persons desiring to obtain a footing in the service. It is not wonderful that this should bo, considering the regularity of the employment and the comparative liberality of the waged "to be earned. And yet the unionists ar© . pressing theit claims for Increases with considerable insistence, and there is no guarantee that these will not be to a large extent conceded. N It is doubtful if the Tramways Committee of the City Council was well advised in taking upon itself the onus I of this private conference in view of j the fact that in ‘doing so it is practically sitting in judgment on a body ofi electors aS well as a union Of iratnway employees. It is no reflection upon the individual Constituents of the committee to eay. this, but merely a debatable point of view. In these matters it is well to avoid even the. appearance of evil. Far better would it have been to have submitted the matter to ah independent tribunal, or even to the Arbitration Court itself than to have held a conference with j closed doors. Large public issues are involved -in these latest demands, because further increases in wages, as well as the shortening of hours, would have a distinct reflex upon many trades intimately and even distantly concerned. Over and above this is the question of broad policy. The points which arise are these:-

(1) Can municipalities, simply because they ate running profitable concerns, afford to be more generous than private employers Working under an Arbitration Court award P

(2) Can the emolument for unskilled labour be advantageously raised to a basis equal to or above that of skilled labour in ordinary avocations P

(3) What is the effect of a policy of wages preference in the case of the tramways employees likely to be on the wage standard of the general community P These are matters which deserve to be very carefully weighed before a decision is arrived at. The danger of a too-generous concession to the demands of labour in connection with public services is well illustrated by the bal-ance-sheet of the Christchurch Municipal Tramways, which we publish today.. ttven with a lower wages scale than that in force in Wellington, this concern is able to show a net profit of £lB9 Ss 7d on a turnover of £91,183 15s 6d!