RAILWAY MEN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 132, 27 July 1911, Page 6

RAILWAY MEN.

(Per - Press Association.) Dunedin, July 26. ; The conference of delegates of the Railway Officers’ Institute, which recently sat at Dunedin and formulated the grievances of the first grade, have embodied these in a petition to Parliament. Among the clauses are the following:—That the positions in the railway service which have been reduced in status during the last few years shall be restored, and that the Act 1)0 amended so as to provide that railway officers shall not be loss adequately remunerated than officers of the Post and Telegraph Department; that notwithstanding the fact that the traffic of the railways has increased considerably during the last few, years the Department is in many instances requiring officers of lower grade to perform duties and accept responsibilities of officers in the higher grade it a lower rate of remuneration than is) payable in the higher grade. Consequently efficient officers, with long ard faithful service, are deprived by the Department of promotion which they are rightly entitled to, this causing dissatisfaction and unrest am mgst officer's, who feel the Department A not carrying out the spirit of the Act ; that railway officers shall receive the same annual leave is officers of tile Post and Telegraph Department, and that sick leave shall not be deducted from the annual leave, or. in the alternative, that railway officers lecoivo the same annual leave and the • same sick leave, and the same amount of payment for overtime as officers of the Post and Telegraph, Depaifmeni: that the Act he amended so as to piovicle that the Departm-nt and officers be equally n'prtvented in the Appeal Board; that the Bo.nl Ihj presided over by a Judge of +he Supvvne Court, and that the decisions if the Boa id shall be final.

A schedule (C) attached to the petition gives an interesting comparison of salaries paid to a num of officers of mo- I’m I ; nu ’1 elegra j I. department with those paid to officers of the Railway La/si ru nr. . «■; a:, vug \ . ‘equally ■••esponsdilo posi'u ns This tc. >!>■ is . oitqj'l »d from the r.-f-ort-montal • ep.»/submit'; l te J’a:hamen fc last session. The telegraph engineer at Dunedin receives a maximum salary of £6OO, whereas tlic maximum salary of the district engineer of railways at Dunedin "is £525. The maximum salary of the Chief Postmaster at Invercargill and also at Wanganui is £525, and that of tlie Traffic Manager of Railways for the same districts is £450. Officers in charge of the principal telegraph offices receive up to £4.75, whilst the maximum salaries of city traffic clerks, statiomuasters and workshops foremen and loco, foremen range from £4OO down to £3OO. Assistant postmasters, graded, maximum £425, also assistant inspectors, whilst in the railway service stores, audit and traffic, the audit inspectors ars 'given a maximum of £355. Numerous others 'parallels are given, the advantage in each in stance being against the railway officers.