MARINE RADIO

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 635, 11 April 1929, Page 6

MARINE RADIO

No Longer Attractive as Career UNREALISED HOPES Young man! 13 c a wireless operator! See the world while you work —attractive pay—a congenial occupation—superior accommodation —all the privileges of an officer. JJOW many times in the past have: advertisements like this attracted, the eyes of ambitious young men and. youths leaving school and decided them on a career of marine wireless telegraphy? Ten or more years ago, when wireless was first being installed on ocean-going vessels, many such a young man was fired with the attractions and possibilities of such a vocation, and took it up accordingly. Alas, it has proved a sad disappointment, and from inquiries instituted by The Sun among operators that have been in port recently, it appears that the • vast majority of these men are dissatisfied with conditions and would quickly relinquish their jobs should anything more attractive turn up. British marine wireless operators may be divided into two classes—those who are employed by shipping companies and those in the service of wireless concerns. The latter fall under two distinct heads according as they are the servants of the British Wireless Marine Service (which is an amalgamation of the Marconi Company and the Radio Communication Company joined to reduce competition), or of Siemens Bros, and Co., Ltd. Operators say that Siemens Bros, and one or two shipping companies treat their men better than the others do, and that the Employees’ Association of Wireless and Cable Telegraphists is an institution indispensable to them for carrying their claiihs before the employers and for fighting their battles with them generally. Questioned as to their reasons for designating their jobs as unsatisfactory billets, operators invariably started with references to bad pay conditions and the increasingly economical policies pursued by employers. So bad were conditions that in 1926 there was a general strike of British wireless operators which lasted for six months. A settlement was eventually effected by means of an agreement between the employers and the employees’ association. It was not a satisfactory settlement, though, for the employees virtually capitulated on account of the financial straits most of them were in through the grike. EFFECT OF 1926 AGREEMENT The main effect of the agreement was to abolish the system of increasing pay with length of service. From the time the agreement came into operation, salaries have been graded on a sliding scale according to the tonnage of vessels to which operators are appointed. This meant that many operators had immediate rises in salary. On the other hand, those same operators would stay at that new rate of pay until they had the good fortune to get appointed to a ship in the next tonnage class. Most of them are still waiting for that to come about. A far greater number of operators had their salaries immediately reduced. Long service men, payed according to length of service, suffered badly in this way. However, they were not all bumped right down to the new basis precipitately. A sliding scale is in operation here, too, and each year those men who have been drawing salaries higher than provided by the agreement, have a certain amount deducted from their salaries until finally bedrock is reached. Apart from the effects of the 1926 agreement, operators complain about the general treatment they receive at the, hands of their employers. The frequency of transfers from boat to boat and from run to run is disconcerting. “I have had only 10 days’ leave since April, 1927,” said one man the other day. These men work seven days in the week when at sea, and many of them are given work altogether outside their wireless sphere, such as clerical work and typing, and tallying and watching cargo while in port. Another operator complained concerning his “promotion.” “I was ‘promoted’ from second operator on a tonnage class I boat at £lB a month to first operator on a class II boat at £l6 7s 6d,” he stated. He is a married man. AUTOMATIC ALARM The introduction of the automatic S.O.S. alarm, about 12 months ago, is a factor that has brought about much retrenchment in marine wireless work. This is a device that is supposed to register automatically certain signals that are sent out prior to an S.O.S. call. No case has yet been reported where it has responded to an actual distress signal, but it has passed all tests. It was consequently authorised, and British shipping companies took it up at once, for it had the effect of eliminaing one operator. Vessels carrying anything from 50 to 200 souls must have two operators, or one operator and an automatic alarm. Likewise, it cuts out one of the three operators that are required on ships carrying over 200 souls. The United States of America, at the Washington Radio Conference of 1927, would not accept the aparatus as reliable. . Finally, there is no future. “The Latin phrase, ‘Ne plus ultra’ applies to us, I am afraid,” concluded one man. “1 strongly advise any young man to shun the wireless operator’s job as a life calling.”