LODGING ALLOWANCES

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12422, 16 April 1926, Page 4

LODGING ALLOWANCES

LOCOMOTIVE MEN’S GRIEVANCE EQUALITY ASKED FOR. The differentiation marie between first and second division members of the Railway Department in regard to lodging allowances, is causing discontent among railwaymen, and a resolution of the grand council of the Engine Drivers, Firemen and Cleaners’ Association passed at the last meeting asks that the allowance paid to locomotive men shall bo the same as that paid to members of the first division. It is contended that the 8s per day or night which is allowed to locomotive men for meals and lodging when away from home is altogether inadequate. On Iho other hand, the first division members, who stay at the same hotel and rat at the same table, are provider! with a scale ranging from 12« 6d per day to 11380 per annum, up to 2Ss per day for the permanent bead. The grand council has asked, therefore, for an allowance which will be from 10s to 12s per day and which will permit members to meet their expenses without the necessity of rendering receipts and vouchers. “There can bo no valid' reason,” states the “Locomotive Engineers’ Journal,” “except snobbery, for having two seta of allowances for members working for the same employer (the public), and the sooner it is removed the more esprit de corps will enter the service. The inadequacy of the allowance to locomotive men is behind as there is no hofel tariff to-day at 8s a day where men can look for the same comfort os

they obtain at their own homes. But why one branch of the service shonld receive an adequate allowance and the other nn inadequate one, is beyond the comprehension of tho grand council and the members they represent. We hope that the Minister for Railways will go fully into this matter and at least take .-•Hell action as will result in an equitable allowance being paid to all members of the service. The regulation drawn up for the first division regarding the allowance is the same as that' provided by tho other Government department, and therefore there appears no reason why the locomotive men could not be included in these allowances,, as they arc away from headquarters to a larger extent than other members of tho service."