LOCO MEN'S PAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 195, 13 May 1919, Page 6

LOCO MEN'S PAY

UNION NOT SATISFIED WITH MINISTER'S OFFER APPEAL TO THE .GOVERNMENT The Railway Locomotive Engine-driv-ers, Firemen, and Cleaners' Association are not satisfied with the proposals recarding pay and conditions offered to. them by tlio Minister of Railways and flie Department. The oxecutive. of the society have asked the Acting-Prime Min. ister to receive a deputation on the subject, and as , the Minister of Railways offers no objection to tho Acting-Prime Minister receiving such a deputation dealing with the Railway Department the deputation will meet Sir James Allen at uooii to-day.

In regard to wages, the offer made by the Department to the society was that tho war bonuses should be made permanent. First-class engine-drivers are offered a maximum of 16s. Cd. per day, am! first-class drivers will comprise no moro than 50 per. cent, of the drivers in the service.. Out of tho first-class drivers the Department may select 25.,' per cent, us special drivers, and these men, who will usually be'the/drivers of expresses, wi!> receive 17s. a 'day. Second-class drivers are offered up to. 15s. a day; first-grado firemen are offered up to 13s. Cd. per day, and second-grade firemen up to 12s. 6d. per day, the men to he divided equally into first-class and -second-class . firemen. All train men are offered an eighthours' day, with time and a quarter for all time worked' in excess of eight hours on any,one day. At present there is a forty-eight hour week, and the men may bo called upon to. work tho eight hours at any times suitable to tho Department. They aro also.to be paid time and a quarter for all night work, which is defined as work between the hours of 10 p.m. and G a.m. The Department has agreed to pay for all standing time, a demand which' the men have made for a long time; standing time is not to count for overtime. The present rule is to pay standing time for three hours only. Tho society asked for a pound a day for first-class drivers and correspondingly less rates for lower grades.

For the sake of comparison it may be mentioned that a first-class guard—and the guard is the man in charge of the train always—receives up to Us. Bd. a day under the scale approved by the A.S.R.S., and a special guard 15s. a day. A leading fitter is to receive 17s. a day, and a leading fitter is/a tradesman who has to go through an' apprenticeship, which the engine-driver has not: ■ It is stated that if something satisfactory is not decided on to-day the men may deliver an ultimatum which will have far reaching effects.