RAILWAY MEN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 28, 27 July 1911, Page 8

RAILWAY MEN

SEEK BETTER CONDITIONS. By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. 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 be amended so as to provide that railway officers shall not be less adequately remunerated than officers of the Post and Tele« graph 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 at a lower rate of remuneration than is payable in the higher grade. Consequently efficient officers, with long and faithful service, are deprived by the Department of promotion which they are rightly entitled to, this causing dissatisfaction and unrest amongst officers, v. ho feel the Department is not carrying oit the spirit of the Act; that railway officers shall receive the same annual' leave as officers of the Post and Telegraph Department, and that sick leave shall not be deducted from the annual leave, or, in the alternative, that railway officers receive the same annual leave* and the same sick leave, and the same amount of payment for overtime as officers of the Post and Telegraph Department; that the Act be amended so as to provide that the Department and officers ha equally represented on the Appeal Board; that' the Board be presided over by a Judge of the Supreme Court, and that the decisions of the Board shall be final.

A schedule (C) attached to the petition gives an interesting comparison of salaries paid to a number of officers of the Post and Telegraph Department with those paid to officers of the RailwayDepartment occupying equally responsible positions. This table is compiled from the Departmental reports submitted to Parliament last session. The telegraph engineer at Dunedin receives a maximum salary of £6OO, whereas the 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 the Traffic Manager of Railways for the same districts is £460. Officers in charge of the principal telegraph offices receive up to £475, whilst the maximum salaries of city traffic clerks, stationmasters 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 are given a maximum of £355. Numerous other parallels are given, the advantage in each instance being against the railway, officers.