"SEETHING DISCONTENT."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1072, 10 March 1911, Page 4

"SEETHING DISCONTENT."

' GRIEVANCES OF RAILWAY SEEVANTS. (By Tclecrapli.-Spccial Correspondent.) Auckland, March 0. The assertion made by the "New Zealand Railway Officers' Advocate" that

seething discontent and dissatisfaction are manifest throughout the service, more particularly amongst the officers," is euutJ i looa "j"- Inquiries made by a Herald" representative showed that far from being confined to one particular division, the discontent is rampant right through the service, and is likely to seriously affect tho efficiency of tho service unless some measure of redress is granted.

The Railway Officers' Advocate," said one member, of the .first division, when approached,'"does not over-state the position, but rather understates it. The feeling of discontent referred to is general throughout the .Dominion, and is growmg. Our principal grievances lie in tho facts that we are paid no overtime for work performed after ordinary hours and on Sundays, although overtime rates are paid in tho Post and Telegraph Department; that men when promoted from one grado to another are only paid on the lower grade scales; and that tho salaries far many of the higher positions are not equal to those paid in the Post and Telegraph Department. Why we, as railway servants, who liave the safely of the public in our hands, should not be placed upon the same, and even better footing, than tho officials of the Post and Telegraph Department is hard to conceive, but yet it is so, and the Minister declines to accede to the representations wo havo made. The only principle which seems to actuate liim in this matter is to make tho railways pay, but he is doing this at the expense of efficiency, as by keeping down salaries lie is robbing us of tho sweats of promotion, and a disheartened, don't-care service is the result."

Another member.of tho first division declared that the feeling of discontent was never more acute and universally rampant than now, and that the' principal cause of it nil was the Minister himself.

"Mo matter what we ask him for," said tho official, "we invariably meet with a refusal, and no matter what further ondonee is submitted, the answer is always the 'same. Tho railway servants as a whole, after the repeated refusals to rcc-. tify their grievances which they have met at' Mr. Millar's hands, have almost given up in despair, and as evidence of this' wholesale resignation is going on. I cannot tell you how many have resigned • .eallv lately, but tho number lias been considerable,' and those who remain live in the hope that ere long one whom thcr consider an autocratic Minister will quit the Hailways portfolio, and that they will receivo better treatment from his successor." Another official pointed out that tha service was rapidly being disorganised through constant resignation, and tho practico of the Department in filling up the vacated positions with inexperienced lads. These lads lie said, through their inexperience, were more often a hindrance than a help at rush times, as they had to bo taught, and when the big holiday traffic was on the seniors were put to 1 heir wits end to keen things going.