RAILWAY SERVANTS REFORM.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 6 July 1901, Page 3

RAILWAY SERVANTS REFORM.

Arbitration Act to be Applied. (Oue Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, This Day. In speaking on the Address-in-Eeply debate a reply was made by the Minister of Railways to the contention that all Railway employees ought to be brought under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act. By adopting such a course he said they would be doing a great injustice to the classified servants of the Department without their having an opportunity of saying whether they would prefer to give up their present position or not. The Government, however, had considered the matter carefully and if the men in workshops thought they would be better off underithe Act than under classification the Government had no objection to their taking that course.

Mr G. W. Russell remarked that, that was certainly an advance. The Minister went on to say that he personally would advise the men to go into the matter very cirefully before coming to a final decision, for this reason that there was only one emyloyer of Railway hands in this Country—the State —and no other employer with whom they could institute a comparison. In event of bad times coming the private employers would be the first to pull down the wages, and would they in that event make the wages paid by private employery—the stand and on which to base their claims. The matter was one for grave consideration.