RAILWAYMEN'S WAGES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1338, 16 January 1912, Page 3

RAILWAYMEN'S WAGES.

9 ——-- ■ INCEEASE AUTHORISED. , MINIMUM, NIKE SHILLINGS A DAY. At a, meeting of Cabinet on Saturday it w;is decided that members of the Second Division of tho railway service should be paid a minimum wage- of 9s. per day. This affects, in the traffic branch, 956 porters, 12 watchmen, and H crossin<jkeepers;, in the locomotive branch 350 labourers; and in the maintenance branch ■1!)(H) surfacemen and labourers. hi addition a further sum of .£15,000 was authorised to men in receipt of !)s. tind over whose duties are of a moro important nature and who utc at present only in receipt of a slight advance on the pay of the men at Bs. and Bs. Gd. The rates of wages to workmen on railway construction works' and engaged in the Public Department havo also been increased to 9s. par day. In his last Budget Statement to the House Sir Joseph Ward, Minister for Finance, said:—"Proposals havo been submitted to the 'House for iimendm«nts to the Government Railways Act. This will provide for increases , of pay to certain sections of railway workers (permanent and casual); and involve an expenditure of about .l'GO',ooo over- and above the amount required to provide for Iliq scale increases accruing under the Act in the ordinary course, Thcsu scale increases approximate ,£35,000, and, taken in conjunction wjth tho amount stated above, the gross Incrcass will be ,C 95,000. The alteration in respect to casuals will be in the direction of a. minimum payment at the rate of Is. lid. per hour, equivalent to 9s. per day of eight hours. "In keeping with the recent general improvement of pay in the Post and Telegraph Department, it is proposed to increase the minimum wage of day-wages men from Is. to Is. 1 jd. per■ hour, equal to 3?. per day for eight hours." Certain of theso increases havo already been granted. : ■ Assuming that the balk of tho Second Division of the railway'men are already in receipt, of the marriage' allowance it is calculated, on the basis of tho second paragraph quoted above, that tho extra amount required to bo paid, as a. result of the determination of th» Government already mentioned, will bo roughly ,£40,000 per annum. For some considerable time representations have been made to the Government by the men concerned to tho effect that it was only fair that their wages should 1)3 increased in view of tho general advance in tho cost of living. It has been suggested at times that some men in private employment were even in a better condition, .financially speaking, than those employed by the State. Tho increases referred to above will tako place as from January 1 of this year. ''