The Railway Difficulty.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 23 May 1890, Page 2

The Railway Difficulty.

♦ ■ ■' * ■■ For some considerable timt there bas been muck correep >ndeoce between the representatiyef of the Railway Employaes jUnion Jand tht Commissioners. To place their case before the public the Ootumißsionejg published the working rules, aud to this, a reply has been made by Mr Edwards as follows :— Sirs — Publication by you of working rules will no doubt, have the effect at first ■ight of misleading pub ie opinion at to affairs in the railway service. I thereto c tender you the following information. Permanent way men were not paid in full for actual time they work, and their hours of labour exceed eight hours per day in many cases The locomotive men onjduty over 10 hours are paid time and a quarter for .such overtime./ No instance known where time and a half has heen paid for ' Sunday duty. Cleaners in some ehed« are worked 16 hours per day, and only count ten hours for tbe tame, and are paid at the rate of 5s per day. Boys are firing on engines who do not know the sigua's, and on th ; i acceunt shunters hare been compelled to refute to work with such, owing to the danger to life and property. Boy« should not be allowed to work be ween 6 p.m. and 6 am. (vide Sweating Commissioners' re' commendations as to traffic). Ten h >urs per day are recognised as the hours of labour for traffic men. Except in very few instances traffic men are not allowed full time off in lieu of p.iyment ior overtime, and on many sections not even a day off is allowed per week or month, even at working twelve hours per day . Guards have been working under ihe fname of " acting " guards for tbe past five years, and have not re* oeived guards' pay. The cause for the late cutting down of wa^es is that they ure styled " acting." This system is also in vogue wth firetneu and drivers* with a similar object. No case known where traffio men re* ceived time and quarter for full overtime, worked about eight hours or time ane! a half for Sunday duty. Boys are employe 1 at junction holding points for passing passenger trains. Piecework and shop wages . are cut down by pieowort, and I can quote cases where men are being given piecework at stated prices fixed by the department, and then pa-.d at rate of oniy half the amount originally offered. There are other ' cases which the men are given work on piec 3 , and the price fixed co low that the men can only make 3a 6d ' per day. When remonstrating against the prices being fixed co low : the men were told they kn«w what to do if not satisfied. JJad the rules you gave out as being the rules in 1 force in the service be^n adhered to, i there would be uo cause for the rail* i way mi-ii to take action, but the rues hrive been most' studiously ignored by the Commissioners in their entirety. The executive regies that, knowing such to be the cause, you should a low the vales to be 1 pub ished throughout 'he land with ! the effect of prejudicing public opinion ngainst the jj u t demands of the railway servants for reform. — W J. Edwabds, General Secretary A.S.B.S. ___