RAILWAY SERVANTS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 104, 27 January 1920, Page 8

RAILWAY SERVANTS

HEARING OF THEIR

DEMANDS

BOARD OF INQUIRY SITS

SOME SERIOUS STATEMENTS

MADE

The New Zealand! Railway Servants' Inquiry Board, whicli' has been, set up by the Government to investigate the conditions at present oby ning in the railway service, met yesterday morning to consider the claim-; of the locomotive branch. His Honour Mr. Justice Stringer presided, and associated with him as ns-sessors were Mr. 11. W. Momttt, representng the Railway Department, and Mr K. Carroll, representing the locomotive branch. Mr. It. Williams appeared as advocate for the Department, Air. W. M'Arley (general secretary of tho Locomotive Engineers, firemen, and Cleaners' Association) for the employees affected. At the outset tho chairman remarked that since the board met on a previous occasion the onlw of reference had been extended, and it now provided that ho might conduct the inquiry in public if he thought fit to do so, and the restriction on the publication of tho evidence was removed. "1 may say," he added, "that as thi-; is an inquiry into the wages and working conditions of one- of our great public services, I personally seo no reason why tho public should not have the application by the workers, and ,tho evidence in support of that application, brought under their notice, and therefore 1 should not oppose the holding of the inquiry in public. I shall, however, consult the wishes of the different branches of the service, and if any particular branch does not desire that the proceedings should be conducted in public, then they will not be so conducted. I - understand, Mr. M'Arley, that with regard to the locomotive branch, you arc not prepared to go on now. Mr. M'Arley: Not without a little adjournment, The Chairman: Owing to tho replies of tho Department not having been received until lately?

Mr. M'Arley: Yes. The Chairman: That being tho case, and as I understand from Mr; Mack that tho Associated Society of Hailway Servants will'bo prepared to proceed at 2 o'clock this afternoon, I will adjourn the inquiry until 2 p.m. and we will then proceed with that particular branch of tho inquiry, The case for the locomotive branch will bo taken immediately afterwards. Mr.' M'Arley:-1 will bo ready to go on in a couple of days. The Chairman: That being so, .Mt. Carroll, tho inquiry stands adjourned until 2 p.m. You will not bo required to attend unless yon choose to, because I uiklersfand tho Associated Society of Railway Servants desire their case to liii held in public, and I shall admit the public and tho Press. Also you can attend or not, as you please, as one of the public. That would suit you Mr. Williams, would it not? ' Mr. Williams: Yes, Your Honour.

Second Division, ' On resumption at 2 p.m., the board proceeded to hear the claims of the second division. Mr. M. J. Mack was , associated with His Honour as assessor , on behalf of the A.S.U.S., and Mr. E. , Hamilton appeared as advocato for the , railway servants concerned. i In stating the employees' case, Mr. Ilampton said he agreed with His Hon- , tmr's statement in the, Arbitration Court nt Duncdin that chasing the cost of living with increases of \wages was_ like chasing the will-o'-the-wisp. The A.S.K.&. < would much prefer if the cost of living protlem could be dealt with and kept nt a satisfactory level, rather than to have to make continual demands for increases of wages,- They were, however, , the v'ctims of circumstances over which they had no control. Mr. Hampton con- , tinned that there had been no review of the wages so far as the permanent schedule was concerned since 1912. His Honour: There have been some increase-?, have tlioro not? Mr. Hampton: "They have been by i wav of bonuses." He added that I the classification had been reviewed in , 1912, and there had been some minor al-. terations in 1912. There wn* ■; demand ' for review of wages and conditions in 19U, but for- patriotic reasons when the war broke out the society . notified the Department, that owing to the war they would withdraw all their claims, and at the same time they asked the Government. to endeavour to keep down the cost of living. In 1915 they found {hat the cost of living was on the rise, and they were x therefore unable to keen their compact ; not to press Tor increased wagw. Tho cost of living gave rise to very serious ag'.ta-' tion among the men. and they were compelled to approach the Government. As a result they were granted ay bonus of Is. In 1910 they again approached the Government, anil after more/ turmoil another bonus was granted.- Towards the ; cud of 1918 another bonus was granted , by the Government. I The Diminishing Sovereign. j These represented the total increases, j As far as the. basic wages of the men i were concerned, the present minimum I wage was £!S 12s. a week, and taking the | sovereign' ns being worth 12s. 9Jd.'in tlio ; purchase of food' alone, that made it ! equal to onlv £.1 Gs. in pre-war days. In the pre-war days they were paid .£2 Hs. That put the men to-day in a far I worse positron than they were in prior I to thejvar. After quoting the opinion of aJiprstehurch Magistrate that the sovereign was worth only 10s., Mr. Hampton said that in taking the Government Statistician's figures they were taking a. fair basis—the official always kept on the safe side. The value of the sovereign at 12s. : Old. was not inclusive of increased rent • or clothing. He emphasised rent, so far as the railwayman was concerned. It hit a railwayman harder than any other ■ individul .as ho could not be. assured of; any permanent location. As a' general : rule, if a member wanted promotion it' naturally precluded him from investing j in. a homo of his own. He hesitated ! about making a permanent abode. An- ! other obstacle in regard to the rent ques- | tion was that no one would get up early j enough in the morning to bring the rail-' wayman in from the suburbs to his work. That compelled him to live quite closo to the station, and it was impos-; sible for him to take up a suburban residence. In most towns the railway ' stations were fairly convenient to the citv, and tho men had to pay fairly still' rents in the eily. and had no ground-i ■ with which to raise vegetables and ease ] 1 the burden. In asking to be placed somewhere on j their pre-war basis they were not asking too much. Seven thousand of the men, ! the great majority of whom had now j resumed their positions in the service, had done their bit at the front. Tt was very unsatisfactory for them to find on j coming back that their patriotism- re-1 suited in an economic loss. I'ntil their wages approximated the cost of living it . would be useless to hope for that unity of action between the staff and manngc-1 meat which was so desirable in order to secure efficiency. If there were good Teasons against any increase tho men would not he unreasonable. .

If they were going to be told, that their demands would cost £1. 100,000, nnd would mean incren e " in fares and in freights, they were entitled to aslc whelher it was not the policy .of the Government lo run (he railways on an entirely business footing. Hip did not know, but this was n vital point. Mr. Hampton quoted Mr. iriov's 1011 report on the question, which, he snid. showed, that the late General Manager held Hint tho railways had been constructed without regard to the fact whether they -Jould nay or not. The Den'irlme'il. «f T'ail••■■iv» ira« not oonsnH. el :y: li I ho cost of the 'ill"! ":■ I lie pi'"bnble revenue from nroposed Had Mr. Jliley's report boon put into effect, and the railways put on the business basis? Railwavmen and the Public.

If the railways were constructed for political reasons or vote-catching purposes without regard to profit and loss it. was not fair to tell the railway servants that if the'increases wore granted tho railways would bo run at a loss. This was equivalent to taxing tho railway servants for tho benefit of tho rest

of tho-community. The railwaymen liad always tried to take n fair and responsible view of tho matter. They recoenissd that tho interests of the public were paramount, but as long as their demands were reasonable he did not think the public would raise any objection. It was not fair to pursue tho policy of low fares and low freights :nth a view to developing tho country at the expense of tho staff. Tho Government had cut down tho price of .butter, but tho farmers had not been penalised. They had been granted something in the shapo of a subsidy. Likewise the flourmillers had been subsidised. He submitted that the qucsI ion of the financial position was one for the Government to face, that was, after His Honour had decided what was fair and iust to award the men. He wished to acuuaint His Honour with the position in March last. They wero then naked bv tho Minister to put in a statement of their claim for increased wages, in order that the position might be reviewed and the bonus system abolished. Thev wero summoned to conferences, and went very fully into the matter, and tho view tho Department took was that tho increase in wages to outsido trades wns much" temporary, and, further, that tho ineroa=ed cost of Jiving would nlso be decreased. At that time it was not an unreasonable position to take up, as the value of the sovereign was then slightly on tho increase, and the cost of living slightly on the decline. Since then the position had radically changed, and last Atrust, when they started the present negotiations. Mr. Hemes admitted that ln's prophecy had nroved incorrect. His Honour interjected that the wish touching tho cost of living wns in many ensps tiie father to the thought. Mr. Hampton said that the Department claimed that the railwaymen's wages compared favourably with the- Arbitration Court awards in other callings. Tho Court fixed a minimum wage, whereas the Department fixed both tho minimum and the maximum. It had no power to pay a good man jnoro than the standard wage fixed. He recognised the position, and in this connection it was an unfortunate thing that Mr. M'Villy wns not. General Manager other than in name. Ho had not a free hand, Mt. M'Villv knew where ho could get the money to put the service and the railways on a satisfactory basis. He could ret it from land values inflated by railway construction. Had ho only tho power ho would get it to-morrow, and be (Mr. Hampton) knew that Mr. M'Villy wauled to do the right tiling by the staff. He was. however, forced into the present position, and in order to. mako tho railways pay bo had to penalise the staff. The late General Manager had in a report stated that it was wrong to construct railways without taking half of tho increased values automatically placed on the adjacent lands, but'tho report was pigeon-holed. Tho Government brought experts into the country to tell them" how to make tho railways pay, and then pigeon-holed their reports. Apparently when certain interests were invaded the. Government stepped in and said, "Stand off the grass," and tho General Mana'.'cr and the staff were thus placed in an unfortunate position. Mr. Hampton added that he would have more to sav on the question of management and finance at a later stage.

An Important Ruling. His Honour: "I don't know whether these Questions come within the scopo of the inquiry." He thought tho workers were entitled to a fair and reasonable remuneration, whatever the financial result, would be. Mr Hampton-. That will do me, then. His Honour added that in the Arbitration Court, it was invariably held that if an industrv could not pay a living wage it oueht not to exist. Likewise he considered that the railway workers were entitled to a fair and reasonable remuneration, and tho fact that it was going In cost a lot of money was beside tho Question. : After further discussion on the point Mr. Hampton said that in view; of His Honour's ruling, which was entirely acceptable, there would now be no necessity for him to go into tho question he had raised. ~ ~ . Cori'tinuing. Mr. Hampton said that the men's demands provided in the ease of truants for a maximum wage of 17s. Gd. per (lav, and a minimum of 165., the. ran. r,n!e= to shunters, and for tradesmen (boiler-makers .and the like), 17s. and His. respectively. 'With tho few exceptions he had 'mentioned, tho increases practically involved 2s. Gd. extra all round. Taking the rates quoted as an illustration, could it be said that ih'erv demands were not fair and reasonable? A guard, for instance, 'had in New Zealand far more responsibility than in most oilier countries. They desired to emphasise that the men went from porter to shunting, and got the latter training over early in their career. Tt was tho most risky of all positions, and owing to tho want of funds the men 'had to work under very unenviable conditions, cramped yards, and the like. This made it very much worse for tho men. As regarded tradesmen, was 17s. n day : too much to ask for a maximum? There ' was not an employer in Wellington who ' would not jump at the chance to get tradesmen at this figure. Mr. Ilampton then said he would put in a. list of 40 '. men who had resigned from the Petone workshops during the last year owing to the high wages offered elsewhere. Eight now tho shops were very short ', of tradesmen, and in this connection it | had to be noted that carpenters cro- ; ployed outside the Department received i 2s. (id. per hour. The returns placed i before tho Superannuation Board show- j i ed that permanent hands were leaving ! I the service at the rate of 300 per quarter. It was nlwurd for tho. Department '■ to lot men with seventeen and more '■ years' service leave, and then to advertise for inexperienced hands to talc; their places. It hit nt the whole efficiency of, the railways. Ho continued that tho increase asked for would work out on a pre-war basis at .£2 Ife. a week. Public Safety Endangered, j The Department, he added; was unable to fill tho vacancies on the stiff, i and the district engineers would, lie felt ■ sure, bear this out. If they called the engineer at Ohakuno then the latter ' must tell them that it-was most difficult to keep tho lino in the Vough country . in a safe condition owing to i'ho fact I, that he could not get sufficient labour | fat the wages offering. He asked His I : Honour to get a return, and this would | : indicate ■that there were' not sufficient \ j experienced men on those sections to j keen them in a safe position, j The railwayiuen were within their j rights in seeking to share in some nwas- ■ nre the present-day prosperity. The position-was vfotf pressing, and V read a letter from out- of tho meii at Hawe:a. Ho was a guard, who had nine chil- ; dren of ages ranging from fifteen to one year." His wages were 13s. a day, and in order to trv and make both ends meet he had, as'Mie letter disclosed, to work for outside employers from (1 a.m. to ' i midday and then go on his run on the i train until sumo time in tho evening. "I need hardly tell you," ran the letter. I "that I am i'tcling the effects of this, but it is necessary for me to do this." ! His Honour: "Of cour.se, in every walk i oi life a man blessed wit:li nine children I must find it extremely difficult to get along, but we cannot consijler the cast I from" this point of view.'] He added that they must consider .the question | from the point of view of' n niiin and wife and their average number of dependants, wnich in Australia hud teen estimated at two. The way out of the difficulty might be for the Government to subsidise married people according to the number of their children, but the ouestion did not como within the scope

ot the inquiry. Air. Hampton said that) tho case ho hod quoted opened up a very serious question. There was a man in charge of a train and responsible for many lives who, in order to make both ends meet, had to overtax his physical resources through outside work. He went on duty half-asleep and tho public safety was thus endangered. One could not blame the guard in question, becuuso ho was forced into the position. "If Something is Not Done!" ** Mr.' Hampton continued that in view of tlio prospect of further increases in tho cost of living, he wished to say that if the Government was going to cut down tho railwayman's wages to . protect the public from 'increased charges then tho position was going to be very serious. The Horvice would bo aflectcd bv the number of resignations and ho himself and the oilier ollieers#of the society would simply get "fed up" and leave the Government to face the position itself. He asked the Ward to consider seriously tho question whether it could not make some interim recommendation with regard to

tho increases demanded. It npp*»red Unit on account of tlio number of separate, claims from tlio various divisions tlio proceedings would 1» protractod, and lie therefore asked that tho board immediately '.eport to tho Government. "If something is not done very quickly," ho added, "wo will have gravo difficulty in assisting the Government to preserve, industrial peaco in this country. It will assist us to keep peace and might ako prevent many men from resigning and thus help to keep up tho efficiency of the service."

.His Honour said that ho doubted whether he could make an interim report, but ho could make a recommendation that tho increases grunted bo mndo retrospective. Mr. Hampton: But that won't keep tho men back who leave the service in the meantime. His Honour: Well, if these other questions take some time in getting settled and I can sco my ,wny to making an interim report on the one question of waits I will do so, Somo discussion then arose at the instance of Sir. Hampton over the status of Mr. Williams. According to Mr. Hampton Str. Williams was not much help to tho board, seeing that he*wns not prepared to answer tho men's statement of their case until he had consulted with the Department. It was most Unfortunate, and placed the men in an unfair position. It was a great pity that the General Sfnuaier himself was not present in Sir. AVillinms's place, so that tVv couhl deal directly with him. Sir. Williams was reallv only a Departmental "dummy" so far as the intiuiry was concerned. Questioned by His Honour, Sir. Williams said that he was not in a position to .reply to the men's demands relative to wages that afternoon. Mr. Hampton' accordingly asked for a adjournment in order that ho might have a brief respite after his arduous task that afternoon.

Sfr. Williams, in reply t<. His Honour, said that after Sir. Hamnton had closed his case and called his witnesses the Department was prepared to make its Te-

ply. ' ' , In reply to Mr. Hampton's representations, His Honour said if in hearing the flc.partmental reply Mr. Hampton found Hint there were matte™ of faet in disputa lie'would give him an opportunity of calling evidence in To.buttal. "His Honour then aeeeded to the request for an adjournment, and tlie board adjourned !i!l 10 o'clock this morning.