Truth SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15,1906. UNDERPAID, OVERWORKED CLERKS:

NZ Truth, Issue 78, 15 December 1906, Page 4

Truth

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1906. UNDERPAID, OVERWORKED CLERKS:

PUBLISHED EVERY SATUKDAY MORNING at Luke's Lane (off Mannebsstheet), Wellington, N.Z.. . SUBSCRIPTION (IK ADVANCE), 13S. PER ANNUM.

A few issues back we published an article dealing with "Salaries and Sin" as applying to the clerks iii Wellington. Those who read it must agree that the statements made were m every detail correct. The remedy for this great evil of under-paying clerks, of grinding to the very lowest both as regards pay and overtime the office staff, certainly lies with 'the employer," as was said, but it is only too evident that the psalm-singing,, hoodie-chasms bosses will need to be .shaken up. considerably before they will tJiihlf. of paying ' the cleric anything like his value. A couple .of ses-; sions back it was proposed m our House of Representatives to pass an Act compelling employers 'to treat office hands, m a humane and Christian manner, but owing to the howl which arose from bank clerks all over' the colony the matter was allowed to drift into oblivion. These same bank clerks are about the worst paid, ' most spineless lot of over-worKed cads to be found m a day's, march: It was not that they objected to the proposed increase m salaries or the reduction m overtime, but simply that they objected to being benefited by a special Act, as it put them on the same level as the "common worker," which is a very-n asty one for the "common worker" to suggest that he might be compared to a bank clerk. Thirty years aco bank clerks were avoided by other clerics as cads and bounders and their act m howling down the measure proposed for I their benefit and also for the benefit of the "common" mercantile cleric proves that they have altered very little m the last generation and a half. »•« ; ■ The domestic servants have formed a Union, the navvies are now doing so, and it behoves the clerks to follow the general example and take advantage of our advanced legislation wliich'was intended to help and protect all classes of workers. Of course one would not expect the' superior "thirty bob a week" bank crawler to join m forming a Union— he would "sneak m later* when those who had helped m the initiation were beginning to reap the reward of their labors. The forming of a C'nion and the citing of a few employers before the Arbitration Court would work wonders m the treatment m&te'd out to the clerk by the ,;blood-sucking blackguard who underpays and overworks his office hands, as do the great majority of local employers. As far as our knowledge of office work goes the only m.an who deals putfair -ttlajuto his inlcs'lingers .is the nlairi m jj. small" ti^^gF^Busia^Bß. —-As: Ibheyprosper • m- -business- tfteir^conscienocs seem to retire <to the background and good principle becomes an unknown quality, lit is a common practice, especially amongst some local shipping firms, to engage from time to time boys of any age up to, about 17 ; work them, on an average, 12 hours per day doing men's work— and cutting the ground from under men's feet by accepting 10s to £1 per week— for a period of, usually, about three years, when m most cases the boy is fired to make xoom for one younger and cheaper. As the knowledge pained m a shipping office is of no earthly use m any other business or office the position of the youthful clerk is Particularly hard, as it means startine all over again at an age of 20 or 21 years. • * • Now a Clerks' Union could easily overcome this evil by invoking the aid of our Statute Books and preventing firms employing more than a certain number of boys to a certain number of clerks. It simply requires someone with a little energy to take the initiative and he would find every clerk m Weliingtpn, and for that matter m New Zealand, behind him m the enterprise. When - one considers the numbers of clerks forced to live on 25s and 30s a week one hardly wonders >at the dozens of cases of petty theft— the majority hushed up— which annually occur ,m Wellington and other towns. One big firm, with a branch office here, has a scheme of insurance against tlieft whereby/ an employ-so pays a premiwm •which exempts him from prosecution m the case of his embezzling any amount up to £200. the fund, of course, making good the amount stolen from the company. Well, if this isn't openly encouraging theft, what is ? When one considers the poor salaries paid by this firm, and the knowledge which the employees have that no prosecution will eventuate, ' one "oan hardly wonder at the number who yearly leave this firm's employ under conditions generally described as peculiar. •■ # • Some time ago a well-known firm, whose local place of business is m Victoria-street, proseouted their cashier for the theft of some £12 odd. In the evidence brought forward it was found that this man, having sole controlof all the 1 firm's cash, was m receipt of a-Ds per week. Considering he paid £1 a week for board one can hardly wonder that th€| judge, when admitting the defaulter to probation, severely censured the employing firm. Many who read of the case at the time were under the impression that this case was exceptional ; but it was not. It was only typical of the dozens of firms m this city, and conditions are exactly the same now. Imagine a big firm paying ledger-keepers £1 a week. Probably anyone not conversant with ways of the merciless money grabber would refuse to credit such a suggestion, but it can easily be proved that this represents the salary paid by some firms. Another instance, is the case of a youth, aced 20, whose home is in<ja Southern town and who has kept himself — he and God alone kn.ow how— for nearly a J r ear on £1 ,n week. Wonder how much pleasure there has been m his life during that time ? Yet' the crawlers— to^foe found m eyery office, .usually to the icar

of the boss — and the bank clerks say that it not necessary to take action m the matter of salary, etc. These same bank clerks work half the nights of their lives for a miserly screw and the poor, silly idiots can't see that regular hours and decent salaries would compensate a hundredfold for the loss of a few holidays (now fast diminishing) m numberholidays when one has to work all the preceding night— and the four or five extra quid doled out at the end of the year to those who have done an extra low obeisance. There are scores of clerics m Wellington who are simply waiting for a lead to let the blood-suckina employers see that the last straw has been placed m position. It but remains for one or two leading spirits to canvass the offices, call a meeting and form a much required Union. Then will the clerk's position improve and he will not be overworked and underpaid, or m the event of protesting have the ground cut from under his feet by boys, women and the "man from 'Ome." Eminent authorities tell us that three hours of mental work equals eight hours of hard manual work. What then is the position of the clerk working eight to twelve hours a day at. the same dull, mon^ otonous task ? -.- ';. : \ '-„.■ ,