“PERMANENT CASUALS.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21102, 12 August 1930, Page 6

“PERMANENT CASUALS.”

AUCKLAND RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. GOVERNMENT’S ECONOMY POLICY. (Special to Dail? Times. •, AUCKLAND, August 11. All the casual hands, 73 in number, employed in the Auckland inward and outward railway goods sheds, received notice to-day that they would no longer .be treated as “ permanent casuals ” with a guarantee of 48 hours* work weekly, but would be placed on the list of “emergency casuals” and called upon when required. The men receive a wage of Is Ipd.an hour, and the guarantee has assured them a wage of £4 8s a week. The effect of the notice will be. to institute a system of short time, under which presumably all will be treated alike. The alternative would have been to discharge, say, 20 of the men. The goods traffic lately has been slack, as it usually is at this time of the year; consequently the staffs of some country stations have been reduced, and a certain number of permanent porters transferred to the Auckland goods shed. It has thus become necessary to cut down shed staffs, and the department has chosen the short time method of doing so. Some of the men affected have been permanent casuals for many years. There is a good prospect that' when the spring arrives and the dairying season gets into fijdl swing the position will very largely right itselg, and there will be enough work to yield the men nearly, if not quite, the farmed guaranteed wage.