Jobs in the Air

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 188, 29 October 1927, Page 11

Jobs in the Air

RESHUFFLE OF RAILWAY STAFFS Will Have to Apply for Own Positions (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, Friday. There are over 1,200 men in the first division of the railway service who do not know where they will be in a few weeks’ time, nor do they know what jobs they will be occupying. On November 12 these positions will become vacant and all will have an opportunity of applying for their own jobs or such others as they think they can fill in the division.

This is the result of the recommendation of the special committee of investigation which was appointed nearly two years ago to regrade the positions in the department, and which only recently completed its operations.

The list has just been made available and announces that the whole 1,230 positions involved, including those in workshops, signals, an<i electrical, maintenance, architectural’, land, refreshment, stores, finance and accounts, advertising, and publicity, commercial, traffic and loco-running branches, and the Lake Wakatipu and staff divisions have been regraded and revalued. A great many new positions are created, while the status of existing positions has been largely altered.

Certain arrangements are also made regarding the method of appeal against decisions arising out of appointments which may be made as a result of advertising the positions, but these arrangements are contingent upon the passage of legislation making alterations to the present constitution of railway boards of appeal, and methods of procedure in relation to appeals generally •

The effect of this report is that men will have to consider their positions as soon as the date for advertising all the jobs arrives, and if they do not wish to be left in the cold will feel obliged, either to reapply for their own job again, or seek transfer into a different grade. Although it is claimed by some of the departmental heads that the committee has prepared its recommendations upon a careful desire to bring railway staffing into line with principles adopted by all big business concerns, it cannot be claimed that general satisfaction prevails among the staff at the prospect of this internal reshuffle.

Officials admit that there will be anomalies which they claim will be smoothed out when the scheme reaches fulfilment. They do not deny, however, that there is uncertainty, if not unrest, among members of the railway staff at the possibility of drastic changes being made in individual positions, and that the great majority of those involved in the regrading scheme feel anything but secure in their jobs. Men might be sent from the Far

North to the furthest South. Others might find themselves in a lower grade of job than hitherto without the prospect of redress, although in cases where a reduction in status is suffered no loss in pay will be incurred.

It is true that there are something like 10.000 men in the railway service

! now whd are more or less birds of passage, but their position is different from those in the first division who now have the shadow of the regrading scheme hanging over their heads like the sword of Damocles. Some doubtless will be immensely pleased with the reshuffle —eventually—but it is equally certain that the great majority is, to say the least, decidedly curious at the present moment.