THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19947, 15 November 1926, Page 6

THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

SICK BENEFIT SOCIETY. PROPOSAL BY RAILWAY BOARD. (Speciai to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, November 14. The proposal put forward by the Railway Board for the establishment of a sick benefit fund to be contributed to by the members of the second division of the railway service has aroused much interest. The president of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (Mr O. T. Carlyle) stated yesterday that the establishment of a society to assist those who were stricken down by accident or illness was a work that by its nature must appeal practically to everyone, and it certainly appealed very strongly to his executive. “The opening naragraph of the Railway Board’s message,” he said, “states that sickness is one of the most common misfortunes of life, producing enforced idleness and a consequent loss of pay to the State. The paragraph should have continued, to all members of the second division of the New Zealand railway service. I may say that members of the second division receive accident pay only, that is, they receive the amount of 58 per cent, of their earnings over a calculated period as provided for under the clauses of the Workers’ Compensation for Accidents Act. The members of the first division alone receive sick pay. The idea of establishing a sick benefit society to operate over the whole of the second division is not a new one, but it is a work of sufficient magnitude to warrant the utmost caution in initiating, for if it is not established on a thoroughly sound basis, it is doomed to failure. t “At the interview we had with the board last August this matter was discussed in relation to our request that ’all members incapacitated through accident or sickness be paid full pay for the first three months.’ The board had no hesitation in refusing on the ground that it simply obeyed the law, its powers being fixed by Statute. A subsequent debate on the mat :er disclosed the willingness of the board to subsidise the amounts subscribed by the sufferers’ fellow-workmates, and the board expressed itself as desirous of seeing the whole question dealt with comprehensively by the establishment of a sick benefit society. Evidently the board has power to subsidise in the direction indicated, but not to pay the 42 per cent, which the man who suffers from accident is short of, a peculiar state of affairs which, I think, should be remedied. “However,” he continued, “my executive has gone into the question. We, as an executive, have no power to establish a sick benefit society such as suggested. That can only be done by the biennial conference which meets in February next, but we have made it possible for the matter to be dealt with at that conference. I may say that such a society as that contemplated can only be brought into being by either the A.S.R.S. or the Railways Department itself. By that I mean that to establish it successfully a large sum of money would have to be set aside, and my society is the only one of the railway unions that is financially strong enough to do that. So far we have no knowledge of what amount cf subsidy may be exxpected from the board, and until the proposals are further advanced it would perhaps be hardly fair to expect the board definitely to name a sum. We are willing to do all we can to aid the sick and suffering, while at the same time safeguarding the interests of the members of our organisation. It may surprise you to learn that Mr Carlyle remarked to the interviewer how backward the State was in regard to sick pay to its railway employees when compared with the European countries, where the State railways operate—Norway, Belgium, Austria, and Italy. The employees off duty on account of sickness are paid in most of the countries mentioned. It is full pay in some cases, for a year. “God’s Own Country pays its second division employees nothing.”