RAILWAY SERVANTS' WAR BONUS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 30, 30 October 1918, Page 6

RAILWAY SERVANTS' WAR BONUS

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER. Replying to a question put by Mr. Hornsby (Wairarapa) in the House of Hepresentatives yesterday, the Minister of Railways (Hon. W. H. Herries) made a statement with regard to the wagos of railway workers. He indicated that an additional war bonus w.ns going to be paid to the railway servants. The Minister said that the petitions that were reaching Parliament from the railway servants were being referred to the Kailways Committer, which would give them full consideration, and would probably take the evidence of representatives of the workers and the heads of the railway branches. The committee would then prepare a report, which would be placed before the House and the . Government. He realised that the rite in the cost of living had affected tlio railway servants as much as any other section of the community. He was very gratified at the loyal way in which tho railway workers had carried out their duties under the difficulties created by tho war. The wages and salaries paid to tho railway servants, added the Minister,, were laid down by law, scheduled and classified. Tho men were divided into two groups, tho Pirst Division and the Second Division, and they were represented by three organisations—the Railway Officers' Institute, tho Associated Society of Hallway Servants, and the Locomotive Drivers, Cleaners, and Firemen's Association. These bodies would havo to bo consulted when the Department proposed to amend the scalo of wages, and it had been felt that tha period of the war was not an opportune time for making any changes. Many of the men were away at the front, and they would have a right to bo heard.

Tlio Government, therefore, had sought, to meet the increase in the cost of living by means of war bonuses. Two years ago a bonus of Is. a day was given to the Second Division men, with an equivalent bonus to First Division men earning less than <£,315 a year. Last year a further bonus of Is. a day was granted to married men of the Second Division. Those bonuses had cost the Department over .£300,000, r probably as much as =£350,000. The questi'iii of a further bonus was now under consideration by Cabinet, and he hoped shortly to bo able to annouiico the amount; and conditions of this bonus.