RAILWAY GRIEVANCES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 308, 25 June 1912, Page 5

RAILWAY GRIEVANCES

DISSATISFACTION IN THE SERVICE. By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. Considerable dissatisfaction is expressed by railway servants in regard to classification and other conditions obtaining in the service. A general improvement of the conditions is desired, andi the removal of certain anomalies as compared with the Postal and Telegraph Department. In September last a petition was presented to Parliament by the men covreing all the grounds of discontent, and this was fully inquired into by the Railways Comlmittce of the House with a result that a report was presented favorable to the requests of the petition. In view of the findings of this committee expected the necessary amendment® in the regulations and Classification Acts would follow, and though both the Hon. Mr. Millar and tjhe Hon. Mr. Myers have been interviewed by the men on the subject/nothing has yet been done. Prior to the in- | tervjiew with the men Mr. Myers was j informed by his responsible officers that the annual recurring cost to the Department at the end of four, years would be over £95,000, but it is contended that this estimate is based on an aggregation of payments over a period of four years. The officers of the institute submitted figures which showed that the very outside cost of giving effect to the proposals would amount, to an annually recurring sum of £31,960, at the end of four years. The Minister, however, preferred to accept the figures of his own officers, and would- give no satisfactory answer. As no steps have yet been taken in the matter a further deputation from the Railway Officers' Institute will wait on Parliament when it mets.