THE DEMANDS OF THE EMPLOYEES. THE CITY TRAMWAYS. THE DEMANDS OF THE EMPLOYEES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 10 April 1901, Page 12

THE DEMANDS OF THE EMPLOYEES.

THE CITY TRAMWAYS.

EXTRA COST, £10,055 TER ANNUM

At Wednesday's meeting- of the City I 'ouncil a matter of importance affecting the council in its newly-acquired re 7 ation to the tramway employees came up for consideration. It was contained in the following communication : —

Trades Hall, Diriadn, March 27, 1301. Dear Sir,— l am directed by the Otago Tramways Union of Workers to forwa; d for your consideration the attached statement of "conditions of employment, el~ , under which the union desire to woik. Trusting you will give the matter jour favourabia consideration, and awaiting the favour of an early rep I}-1 }-, — I am, etq.,

K. Bheen, Secretary.

Statement.

1. The hours of woik for all employees in the train service to be not more tiian 43 per week.

2. All time worked over 48 hours to be considered overtime, and to be paid at the rate of time and a-quarter 011 week days and time and a-half on Sundays. Rope work on cable cars to be paid at the rate of time and a-half.

3. Drivers of horse cars to receive not les^ than 8s per day; gripmer and motormen not less than 9s per daj ; conductors on all ca's not les3 than 83 per day, linemen 9s 01; day and 10s on night shift, eugine-cinv ers and blacksmiths not loss than 10= per day , firemen and blacksmith strikers x.ot le«s than 8s pei day; grooms, ear clcancis, night watchman, and all men employed as la'iouTe r s not lc = s than 8s per day; all bo\s cmiiLoyod as leaders, charge boys, and. greassr?, rot lens than 30s per week of 4S hours, stab'e foreman not )o=s than £i per week. Eight hour? to be considered a day.

1. Special cars after midnight to be paid for at the rato of 5s each per tup for driver and conductor.

5 All tram enioioyees to bs allowed one week's holiday each year on full paj\

G. Chustmas Day and Good Friday to be ohserved as close holidays

7. Employees to be allowed to smoke when the car i, not in motioa.

8. Uniforms, when necessary to be v. orn, to be provided by employers.

9. Members of the Otago Tramways Union of Worker 3to be employed in preference to con-members

The Mayor moved — "That the letter be referred to the Tramways Committee to coneider and report" He thought there would be but one opinion in the council on this matter — that the loiter suggested a question that was of the utmost importance t<i the council as proprietors of the city tramways. In view of the fact that the council .almost immediately it toolc over the trams ijavo a clear indication that the fiv*t matter they would srt themselves to consider was th<> wages' of the employees, with v \ lew to equitably adjusting them and j;i\iiij :i fair vage, it wa-. v nity. lie though!, that this ( oinnHUiK alum should hu\e emanated Irom the Ti ;u'os Hall until they saw the way Iho council w-eie disposed lo treat the eroplojec. (Hear, heir.) It could not e\eu luw o been anticipated by the Trades Hall, or by the employees, how the comic il proposed to ticat them So far as lie knew, the council woio dispo-od to deal fairly in the mattor. It v. as a pity, theiefore, that the letter should ha\ o come before the council. As it had come to hand, however, he wished to state a few fects with reference to the position. A schedule of the wages paid to the employees at the present time had been submitted to the Tramways Committee, showing that there were now 135 employees on the tramways. Of these 35 were conductors, whose wages averaged 30s Bd, including commission. These officers were really grown lads or young men under 20— men who, in many cases, were physically not capab'e of doing hard work, or. indeed, any other work. So, at any rate, he had been told by the manager; and the information, he might add, bore out what he had himself seen of the men The hours of labour formed an important factor in the consideration of the matter. At present the number of hours worked by the conductors was 54 per week. The details submitted to the committee showed that while an injustice might have been done in some cases, there was, on the whole, little ground for the statements made in letters to the press from time to time about the wretched wages paid to the men.— (Hear, hear.) The drivers, also working 54- hours per week, now earned 34s per week The position of a driver was, no doubt, more responsible than that of a conductor; it requiied experience. But he would not discuss at present whether the niou wcie fan-Iy paid or not. Then, there were 19 grooms^ whose aveiage wage was

32s 6d for 7\ hows' work per week It Lad lo be icrr.einbcr2cl, hoi\e\ rr, that .' cr om's work was peculiar. In tlio tiarn Ma 'leg, at any rate, the woik was not regi^ar. A cntam number of hoises had to be attended to, and then an interval clap-cd until oilier borfccs arrived. No doabt tlio men wcie on tho premises all the time, but they were not always at work. Tho night watchman was employed for 77 hours foi 35s per week. To gi\e an idea of the effect the payment of. the demand made by the 'Iracies Hall, on behalf of the union, would ha\e (,n the wages of the employees he had lefencd to, he wished to say this : The conductors, instead of being paid 30s 8d for the 54- hours, would receive £2 17s — si\ days at 8s per day and 9s for six hours' work on Sunday. Tho drivers, instead of earning 24s for the 54hours' work, would also earn £2 17*. la the case of the grooms, the increase aaked for was remarkable. Instead of recehincj £1 12s 6d per week, they would get £4- 2s 6d per week, wlvch wps made up of 48 hours of ordinary time and 26 hours of oVertime. eight hours of which would be regarded as Sunday work. He would not go into details further. In the remarks he had made, h° did not wish to cast any reflection on unions. He thought, as an employer of labour, that they often saved strikes, but at the same time there was such a thing as reason — reason on both sides. It would be. rather startling &nd astounding to the council to learn that if the request was acceded to the council v.ould have to pay iji wages alone, in addition to the amount" now paid, no less a sum than £10,055 per annum.— (One councillor whistled when this remark was made, and other 3 showed their astonishment by shifting urcaniy m their acats.) That would ena'-lc tho council to sec thaiif the demand was acceded to, and the corncil had to r ay it— he predicted, however, tljat no Conciliation Board or Arbitration Court would ever order them to -do so — it would mean one of two things: that the council must run the trams for the travelling public at an immense cost to the ratepayers or that the ios3 would have to bcmade up by a rate or in some other way perhaps by increasing the. fares and so making the travelling public pay for the additional cost cast on the corporation. A claim i or increased wage*, he might say, was als>> made lately m Wellington, and the payment agreed 0-1 was. lie thought, lOd per hour. Referring to the tram drivers, he sa-d the first suggestion made by the Wellington Conciliation Board was that the ordinarr houra should be 55 per week, exclusive of ouncays. He was of opinion the matter had been submitted to the council without due consideration.

Cr Ooro s cjndcul • th» motion. He did not think it «ns desirable, to discus, tho matter at the present time. Under ordinary circuit Vices the c-mimutej would have brought; up a report recommending a c?rtain mcre>sc of M^e, to the men. The committee were p. spared to deal very liberally wit a tnc.ll. bjt the advance now asked for wa- so r-toi.iv'i-^ that he did not sec how it wa- po-<;>lo to di-enss it. He hoped the matter w-ojM bo settled without gomsr to arbitration. He wou'cl like to &ay he had been under the imprc-ion mat considerable sweating Lad been golnc; on in the pist, but ho had found that a-, a matter of fret it was l.ot so. Ho had been shown, for instance, that instead of conductors having 1 worked for 14- hour* a -clay their daily hours were not more than eight and a-half. Tho motion was carried.

Borii.g Gprvaii'm-. for petroleum are still l-oing nctucly carrie! on ar "Uoiuroa (^aj s tlio Tai-anaki Herald) The latent boie is now clo'\ ii a t'opth of 620 ft, but so fr>r no indication 1 ; of oil have been mot with.

The West Australian Government Geologise Qlr (Tibb Maitlant l ) has completed a le'iqthy triii from Cue, the centre of the Murcbison goldtie'ds. to Carnarvon. He report? that during his examination of the country betvveon the heads of the Woraniel and Miniiya Rivers, one of the mo«t important contributions of t'lis colony to science was obtained. He discovered, associated with the carboniferous roc\s in that district, an extensive depo?it of glacal origin. Tins deposit he traced and proved over a distance of 60 or 70 mile^. "With the deposit weio a large number of ice-scratched boulders, a. quantity of which he collected with a \jcw to their being brought to Perth.