RAILWAY CLERKS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 13, 7 September 1931, Page 6

RAILWAY CLERKS

TRADESMEN CRITICAL "The desperate efforts of those m authority over the Railway Department to reduce expenditure so that fhe railway accounts may balance, make very sorry reading from the practical railwayman's point of view," states the offlcial organ of the New Zealand Railway Tradesmen's Association. The article continues — Long Ta!e of Bismissals. * "For the last eighteen months there nas been encroachment after eixeroachment on the well-etstablished working condittions, and in the sama period there has heen a long tale of dismissals to record. This month there is a fresh instalment of dismissals, and this time in a quarter which it would have been supposed was xmong the last to be affected. We refer to the notiees served on certain apprentices to the effect that wbmn they have completed their indentures they are to seek work elsewhere. The notiees served so far are upon youths wbo in many cases have excellent reeords, who have studied diligently to make themselves theoretically efflcient, xnd who are regarded by their fore•nen and their fellow-workmen to bo in every way suitable for service 'n ihe department when practical abllities are taken into account. Meavy Overhead. "The clei'ical and 'overhead' secl.ions lead a charmed life through it all. Yet a great ineasure of the workshops disalxility at the present time is the weigbt of 'overhead' with which each productive unit is loaded. There is no question but that in the reorganisation of the workshops an 'overhead' department lias heen huilt up "which goes far beyond the demands of economic usefulness. It has grown so big, and its methods are so intricate, tliat it has converted practical foremen into glori.fied clerks, and in lots of cases doublcd the cost of getting the most trumpery jobs done. To rain the production schedule now in operatifm lakes more than twice as many clerks as were required before it was adopted,."