CITY COUNCIL EMPLOYEES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 888, 6 August 1910, Page 10

CITY COUNCIL EMPLOYEES.

CLASSIFICATION AND SUPERANNUATION. • Sir, —Prior to tho last.Mavorai. election our present Mayor advocated from tho platform during his. campaign the above. Knowing' uis practical sympathy with the class ol men most afrected I ask no pardon in urging liim to. action, and trust in the manner indicated, he will prove his earnestness by letting ttiem know ho does fully desiro, to see such a scheme inaugurated and during ins term of office, in advocating this cause I ask for space to stato a recent caso of particular hardship to demonstrate tho need of some such sound scheme. There died last month in tho city an old employee who served the ratepayers and his council at bur local destructor for eighteen to twenty years. Prior to that lie served :at tho same place when firstly Mr. Lamberg had the place and .again when i\lr. Lamberg was succeeded by Mr. Bayliswho had .the contract for another two years. Until two years ago this employee served on tho night sflift firing alternately, and a visit of inspection by our local councillors would have sufficed to show what arduous,and nauseating work it is. The men are subject and liable to every form of germ that the garbago of a large city l produces. From se.ven shillings a day, he rose to tho sum of ten shillings as shift boss two years ago,. and was still firing until that period. Theu ho was given charge of tho traffic upon the tipping floor doing eight hours a day, and his pay rednccd to nine shillings. Married man too, and a wife and five children practically depending upon him. Long years of night and day work, amidst tho garbage, told upon this faithful servant, ana during the whole of his term lie only drew tho sum of (15s. per week) for cloven weeks as sick pay from a mutual self-help fund organised among tlio men themselves. Hero'l may mention tho city corporation docs not contribute ono penny to this fund, nor does it givo these men, wherf sick, any. wages at all irrespective of their many;years of service.Some remedy is needed, and I am suro our Mayor will weigh tho matter carefully when ho reviews the question, Completely broken in health, the man whose ,caso I am discussing, loft wurk, and was ordered t<> tlio hospital in' March and. left the institution four months later (July, 1910) little better for his kind and i humane treatment while there. During this period he roccived no pay, nor did he even receive anything from tho men's fund, being unfinancial or the like. . Pressed diro distress ho was compelled ; >to return, though totally unable, to his work. Seven,days, later,while,at work at the destructor he falls down ill having tried to.meot trouble .with,a dauntless front, is placed in a cart and taken' home. Tho early hours of tie next morning he breathed his last.

What a reward to look to after 18 to 20 years'consecutivo service I Under the stress of our present economic conditions what .an end to look forward to! Some provision should be made for good and faithful services rendered and for the protection of the welfare of his fellow employees. Then, sir, one mail was' associated, and is an employee still, and: has been for the last seventeen years mates with the late man desired to see the last funeral rites, _ asked . leave, but was informed that if he went nis. pay . would bo stopped for the time he was' away. Ho went and was one of the pall-bearers, and when the pay came around his pay' for the half-day was stopped. Ido 'hope,if labour and justice arc represented that some councillor will move and the rest bo unanimous in seeing that his pay is returned to him. Compare the treatment of this man to the holidays granted to some of the ipore prominent corporation employees' to visit Sydney and elsewhere on full pay. Surely the lower grades under economic conditions should receive just as much consideration, seeing that it comes from tho same source—rthe - 'ratepayers l ' pocket. Furthermore I shall not - comment, having established' a case for these men, and 'behoving your sympathy willbe with them and the object in view. —I' am, etc., WHIFFY..