NIGHT RATES OF PAY AND HOLIDAYS FOR RAILWAYMEN

Wanganui Chronicle, 3 December 1946, Page 5

NIGHT RATES OF PAY AND HOLIDAYS FOR RAILWAYMEN

; FOUR CLAIMS BEING HEARD BY TRIBUNAL [ (P.A.) Wellington, Dec. 2. The hearing of claims by the Railways Department employees that all time worked between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. should be paid for at night rates, or an appropriate rate of pay then obtaining. and that three weeks’ annual 'eave should he granted them, was begun to-day by the Government Railways Industrial Tribunal. The tribunal comprises Messrs. W. F. Stilwell, S.M. (chairman), E. Casey, former general manager of railways, ind E. A. Whitlow. More than 100 clauses will be submitted jointly and separately by the four applicant service organisations—the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the Engine Drivers', Firemen’s and Cleaners’ Association, the Railway Officers’ Institute and the Railway Tradesmen's Association.

The hearing of the claims, which affect about 26,680 employees, is expected to take about six weeks. The tribunal will not sit between December 19 and January 8. The first claim on behalf of the four organisations was submitted by one of its two advocates, Mr. H. R. Bishop, secretary of the A.S.R.S. The department’s assessor is Mr. A. F. Taylor, and its advocates are Messrs. N. L. Stevenson and F. B. Carlisle.

Mr. Bishop said that the applicants were of opinion that uniformity of conditions among all railwaymen was necessary, and that it justified the claim. Many employees in all departments were called on to undertake night shift duties because the transport department must function continuously for 24 hours a day, and the disadvantages, hardships and inconveniences of night shift duties were so well known in the railway service as to he almost commonplace. A member in a late shift or night shift was denied the pleasure and company of his family in the evenings. Ho was either absent on duty or in bed hoping to obtain a few hours of more or less refreshing sleep before going on duty while normal life and noise went on all round him.

In effect, the applicants were asking for an extension to all railways employees, between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m, of the same conditions that already applied to most traffic employees between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., i.e., one and a-quarter times their ordinary rate of pay for ordinary time worked between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., and for all penal rate time worked between those hours the employees should be paid their respective penal rates on the rate for ordinary night work. For the department, Mr. Stevenson said the claim, as it was expressed, embraced all classes of employees, including those whose conditions were determined by reference to industrial awards or agreements, and those who worked under railway conditions but did not receive additional payment for work performed during night hours. Four separate claims for application of night rates to particular classes of employees also had been lodged by the A.S.R.S. The respondent submitted than any consideration given to an extension of the scope of night rate payments should be confined to particular classes of employees on whose behalf the specific claims had been made.

Discussion on the second claim about annual leave was postponed until the tribunal meets to-morrow.