"LOCO" MEN IN CONFERENCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20013, 17 February 1914, Page 25

"LOCO" MEN IN CONFERENCE

(Per Preps Association.)

OHRISTCHURCH, February 16

The conference of the N.Z. Locomotive Engine Drivers', Firemen and Cleaners' Association was resumed today. The report supplied stated that the Grand Council had considered the present system of pqmpulsory retirement from the superannuation fund upon retiring from the service as a. distinct hardship, inasmuch as it deleted benefits and amounted to a punishment of the members concerned. . Tho Council held ythat the insurance fund should be governed by commercial principles and ia contributor once admitted,should have the option of counting his contributions until his policy expired. At pTesent members retiring at their own option or by direction only received the actual money they had paid in, minus interest. It was a matter of speculation whether the fund would benefit a contributor for at the last moment, after forty years' service, misadventure might deprive a member from participation in the benefits. . The Council required^ a more equitable control and a definite benefit clause, independent of the vagaries of the service.

A member engaged on the Council was dissatisfied with A-foe pijesemt^ m©t|ical exam, for departmental requirements, and held that a member interested should have the dhoice of a doctor so as to be in line with the present practice of the Department in nominating th© medical officer they required. It was understood that pay for all certificates was required to detect a malingerer, but in contravention of the wording of tho Act the Department asked an employee to oanry a double burden of expense. In view of the recent Aisgill disaster being attributed to tho use of inferior coal, unduly harassing the engine crew in the more important matter of attending to public safety, the fact that an improvement was urgently needed in the standard of coal supplied to the New Zealand Government railways, tlhe Council were making special representations to the Department ±Q remove the trOuble and so avert a looming danger. It was urged that for public safety there must be adequate boiler power, witn suitable coal. The practice of supplying coke in substitution for coal at Prankton in particular was causing extreme anxieiv to the men. Alterations to the constitution and rules were considered and an address was delivered by Miss Mitchell, of the Social Democratic Party.