A PLAIN STATEMENT.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14892, 15 October 1918, Page 2

A PLAIN STATEMENT.

RAILWAYMEN'S PROTEST.

APPEAL TO BE MADE TO PARUAMENT

In very plain terms an official .statement issued 'by the New Zealand Locomotive Engineers, Firemen and Cleaners' Association sets out the-discontent existing among its members, and makes an appeal for improved conditions. The statement is as follows :— Very grave discontent exists among the locomotive engineers, firemen, and cleaners engaged upon the _\ew Zealand railways at the present time. Their ranks have been seriously depleted owing to the enlistments .'and a large number have taken advantaoe of the offerings of positions outside* the service Avith better conditions of life. Most o;- those who- have gone to. the front and returned are not seekino- reemployment in the service, because* the conditions of Avork are not by any means congenial, and tho pay is too small in comparison with the responsibilities and the strictness of duty attached to train running. The pay offered is of no inducement to lads to join, and the department at the present time is without lads in training for this responsible work and which means that trains will be run with untrained unskilled men, upon whom will fall tho responsibility of a train disaster, in spite of 1 the fact that their entrr into the--service is due to the lack of respon-; sibility.of those in control. A charge of manslaughter such as that brought against an engineer in the United States of America, for a train Avreck resulting in the death of 185 men and women and children, is not an ordeal any man desires to go through for the sake of a bare living, such as exists for loco men m iSew Zealand. WHAT THE LOCOMOTIVE M4N EARNS. Probably a large number of the public think that a locomotive man running trains during tho night time receives an extra rate, ITUt this is a misapprehension of the position, as they only receive, ordinary time. A first-class- engineer, a position only, attainable after 20 years' service, three years of winch as a cleaner is Avholly. night duty receives for running the Main Trunk express to Auckland the sum of Is Bid"nn hour. First-class firemen, some of whom at the present time have been on for 14 years, receive Is 3sd per hour for such work. If they are in the second class they receive as follows-—En-gineers, Is 6d per hour, and firemen Is 2sd per hour. No overtime rates are paid for night duty, and no overtime rates tor hours in excess of eight hours per day. Overtime is only paid when 111 excess of 48 hours for the week. In addition.to this there are several duties .which the. men are called upon to do and for which they receive-no pay.whatever. The officials decline to pay for same. DECLINING WAGES. During the last 17 years' the real wage of a locomotive man has seriously declined, as the following will clearly indicate-—ln 1000 a few engineers received 13s per day, but the majority received l2st in the first grade of engineers, and the rate was even up to a maxjmum of 15s a day in Provincial Council days. The 13s a day men received, therefore. 100 per cent, over a' hying wage, and the 12s a day engineer received roughly 80 per cent. Jo-day the first-grade engineer receives less tlum 50 per cent, over the livinoAvage. In 1900 the second-grade engineers received over 50 per cent, over "the! living wage, and to-day only about 33 peri cent l<irst-grade firemen, in. 1900, received 39 per cent. oA^er living wage, and to-day about 15 per cent. Second-1 grade firemen, in 1900, received over 18 per cent. over living \va<*e: and to-day about 16 per cent. Cleaners are: still in receipt of a living wa'>e or existing, wage, as' their maximum! ••lhevinaximuiti wage paid per schedule or itouways Act to engineers is 13s 6d per daw in-comparison Avith lGs and over "l 'Australian- States/in spite 6^ the fact that Ministers have assisted in gettinmen r?tteS fOr New Zeilla^d »eaThe rocont war bonusus granted to locomotive men work out as follow — -Married first grade engineers, 15 per cent, increase; married second -rade engineers, 17 per cent, increase ned first grade firemen, 19 per cent inwease; married second grade nremeu, l,ei cent...increase; Cleaners, 2*> per cent, increase; single firsti <r ra do engineers, 7i per cent, incre'asl- sin-Ye second grade engineers, 8* per cent'in--crease; single first grade ivomlr^ per cent, increase; single second grade fircpe^ent t f !^ ng haS adv «»««d about 50 wars tL? o 1 8e T n- lt then>fore appears that a loyal servant of tho Gn--Hut; 0/'! in + °, ther v°**> is judged by the amount that bo i* jrePjred to take without protest^ " COUNCIL'S FINAL A'PPF » t Minister !. • UUG i-ccentiv the mgiit work, but the i<'-'^i^'^ out New Zealand m,,;? 1"8 V'™s-'"----on ltV ask for ran-treatment. I