Worker Participation In Railways Control Being Investigated

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26906, 19 October 1948, Page 6

Worker Participation In Railways Control Being Investigated

The participation of employees in the control of the State-owned railway service, and in particular of the railway workshops, is being discussed. This action follows the statement of the Minister of Labour, Mr McLagan, at the annual conference of the New Zealand Federation of Labour in Dunedin at the end of April. Mr McLagan said that the Government had’plans for the participation of workers in the direction of industry throughout the country, and that compulsion would be applied if industry did not respond voluntarily.

The discussions on the subject have reached the stage where steps are being taken by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants of New Zealand to try to formulate a plan of action between the management, the A.S.R.S., and the men on the job at the railway workshops at Woburn, in the Hutt Valley.

In a statement in a September issue of the New Zealand Railway Review, which is published by the A.S.R.S., the new president of the society, Mr J. A. Barton, says that worker control in industry has been the policy of the organisation for some time. At the last conference of the Labour Party in Dunedin, the question was fully endorsed, and caucus was given in-structions-for some action to be taken.

“A State-owned railway is the ideal place to start with,” Mr Barton adds. “What our organisation is concerned with is ‘ second division participation in the management’ of the railways For the efficient running of the railways there is too great a gap between the administrative side and the second division, between the theoretically trained men and the practically trained men. Our duty as railway men is to try to bridge the gap.” Mr Barton went on to say that second division participation in management did not mean a few highly paid “ cushy ” jobs for some members of the second division, nor did it mean that the administrative officers could sit back and shelve their responsibilities on to the shoulders of some committee. Stating that the question had been discussed by the national executive of the A.S.R.S., the president added that the executive thought that the workshops were the most favourable places in which to start. When success was achieved there, committees could be formed in other branches of the service, as it was reasonable to assume that if success were not achieved in the workshops where men were closely assembled, it would be more difficult in other branches where the members were widely scattered. At present, he said, steps were being taken to try to formulate a plan of action for worker participation at the Woburn Workshops. The Daily Times was informed yesterday that in Dunedin, where there are about 1200 men employed at Hillside Workshops, a workshops committee, which has functioned in the past, was becoming more active. It was stated that increased liaison between management and the workers would benefit the industry, as ways of 'improving methods at the workshops were often devised by the practical men, who were in many cases too diffident to approach the management to enable the methods to be universally adopted. The question of worker participation in industry has been a live issue on the waterfront for some time past. The passing of the Harbours Amendment Bill provides for waterside workers’ representation on harbour boards by nomination.