INCREASE FOR DIRTY WORK

Chronicle (Levin), 17 December 1946, Page 5

INCREASE FOR DIRTY WORK

Tftr WELLINGTON, Dec. 16. An increase from l^d to 3d an hour i in the Railways Department 's allowjances for dirty work, was claimed by jtlie Amalgamated .Society of Railways iServants in submissions to tlie Railways Indusiiial Tnbunal today. Tlie associ- ! ation further claimed that the dirty i work allowarice should be, extended to jinclude eniplovees engaged in lainp j rooms, as coalmen, as spring makers, iwork carried out, underueath , loco(motives, in the locorrrotives depot run- [ uing sfieds and in depots handling jrails, fasteners and secortd-hand material. ' Alr. N, L. Stevenson, for the departiiieTit, said it was concerned at the Jengths it had to go in detennining ihe request^ for an extension of the paymeiu of Ihe dirty work allowance to classes ot work not previously eovered. The ai.ifunt of dirty work wliich Ihe difl'cu-i.i elasses of employees in the' department could reasonably be ex]>ected to encounter in the perforfnance of their nornial duties, must obviouslv vary with the ditl'erent types of' work undertaken and, in fact, with the individual items of work. The allowance should not be paid in any case without I'ull regard for sucli normal variations. Dealing only with the four maia workshops, it was estimated that the cost of ;k lying a dirtv work allowance on tlu; basis of fhe present schedule. was 'oi 3,564 per iinmim. If the rate were nicreftsod to 3d an hour, the total cost for the workshops alone would be 223,254 per annum. Deeision Was reserved.