RAILWAY EMPLOYEES' GRIEVANCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 851, 24 June 1910, Page 4

RAILWAY EMPLOYEES' GRIEVANCE.

We commented on Wednesday on the action of the Railway Department in penalising railway workshops employees belonging to the volunteer forces, who desired to take part in tho public parade to welcome our new Governor. We thought the or.der issued to stop the pay of those volunteers who desired to take part with their corps in honouring his Excellency merely a stupid blunder, due to an oversight, AVe were mistaken. Hero is the official explanation :

The Railway Department holds'that it would not bo fair to its men in the workshops in the other centres if the I'etono employees were allowed a holiday every time some public function took place in Wellington. As the seat of Government, Wellington has many more functions of a public nature than any other of the largo cities in New Zealand, and tho Department says that if tho railway men here were allowed time off on those occasions, its employees hero would enjoy many more holidays than the railway workshops employees in other parts of the Dominion.

This ridiculous attempt to make it appear that the whole of the workshop employees were affected, whereas only those who are members of volunteer corps were concerned, is not at all creditable to the Department. Tho whole point of the matter is that while the Government is professing such enthusiasm _ and calling on everyone to assist in stimulating tho defence moment, it deliberately penalises its own employees who belong to the volunteer forces when 'they desire to take part in a public, parade of their corps. What sort of an example is this to set the private employer'( To pretend that some large question of holiday rules affecting the whole Dominion was involved in permitting a small number of Government employees who happen to bo volunteers to parade with their corps on an exceptional occasion such as that of "Wednesday last is the veriest nonsense and will deccivc no one. If this sort of petty quibbling by tho head office is tho customary procedure in dealing with tho employees in tho railway service, small wonder is it that the discontent so widespread throughout the service. This, however, is another aspect of the matter. Our reason for directing attention to the Petono workshops incident was to urge upon Ministers the inconsistency of their action in thus penalising volunteers who are in the employ of the State, and the bad effect such action must have in more ways than one on the defence movement.