RAILWAY PORTERS’ EARNINGS.

Taihape Daily Times, 8 February 1919, Page 7

RAILWAY PORTERS’ EARNINGS.

All railway porters in England are not enthusiastic about the eight hour clay, b,'cause it will reduce their ‘*'tips.’’ Few people realise, it is stated, that passenger train porters at large stations arc mraong the aristocracy of labour, their jobs being worth from £250 to £3OO a year or more, and many men prefer to be porters all their lives, as they cannot afford “ promotion” to be shunters , or signalmen or station masters, where tips are out of bounds. Porters work about ten hours daily, and their present wages arc 33s a week, while overtime and Sunday duty carry higher rates of pay, and the , railway companies supply the clothing. ‘ ‘ What do platform porters get from tips'!” To this question an inspector at a London station said: “It varies, but many of the men would think it a bad week if they did not pick up £3. In these days many people give a shilling or mure for the .assistance they get;.”