THE PREMIER SPEAKS OUT.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 May 1920, Page 5

THE PREMIER SPEAKS OUT.

CAUSE OP THE DEADLOCK. RETROSPECTIVE PAYv mi. . Wellington, May 1. fn ♦ " on,ul ß Mr. Massey endeavored w get into communication with the sec ■«a r £i of the Engine Drivers > rir ««>en, and Cleaners' Union to inform him of his proposed course of action, but neiwer by telephone nor messenger could be succeed. After less than half an hour for lunch the Prime Minister returned to his office. Shortly after Mr. Massey issued the following statement: "I think it is generally understood now that I had no difficulty whatever with either the K. 0.1. or A.S.R.S., both being willing that the matters m dispute should'be dealt with under the provisions of the .Labor Disputes Investigation Act of 1913, with any necessary modifications that misrht be required. The position was, however, very different with those who claim to represent the loco men. They also were in favor of a conciliation commission or committee, but their ideas of details were, according to my experience, unworkable. "After a long discussion they, however, agreed to form a tribunal, which I could accept, but one point about which we could not agree was their proposal to make operating resulting from the recommendation of the tribunal retrospective. I met the loco men first on 29th April, but on the 30th the executive of the E.F.C.A. made a new demand which had not been mentioned by them at the interview on the evening of the 29th, namely, that whatever increases in wages or conditions were recommended by the conciliation committee must be retrospective from Ist April, 1919. "I pointed out that the date for the commencement retrospectively of new rates and conditions was one of the essential matters to be considered by any tribunal which might be established, since so far as the claims of the E.F.C.Arelated to an increase in the co3t of living that cost was a varying quantity. I said the Government would not think of itself naming as a condition of agreement a certain time from which the increases should commence, and could not consent to that condition of agreement being imposed by the executive of the E.F.C.A., but I at once offered to leave to the conciliation committee, without limitation, power to recommend the date from which the increases in wages and improvement in conditions should retrospectively commence"l emphasised that the conciliation committee would be representative of both parties, and that the E.F.C.A. would have the fullest opportunitv of contending that the Ist April, 1919," was the date which should be recommended, and if their contention wits fair and just in that respect there was no doubt it would be considered as such and recommended by the tribunal. I said I could not agree cm behalf of the Government to withdraw from any tribunal which might be established power to consider and determine the date from which any increases recommended by it should commence. It is manifest that while the Government can trust Parliament to affirm an action of the Government founded upon the advice of an independent commission approved by both parties, should it alone decide and dictate the decision upon one of the most important matters which the commission ought properly to consider and decide." Mr. Massey asserted that he wafc not opposed to an increase in wages if it was decided upon by the tribunal "on or about Ist April, 1919" Mr. Massey continued: "There was an agreement arrived at as between the representatives of the Government and the department, and the representatives of the railway service, the result of which was embodied in the Railways Act passed last session, which is now the law of the land, and I could not possibly go behind an act of Parliament. It also puts Judge Stringer's report and recommendation on one side, though the engine men, with the other branches of the railway service, were quite satisfied to leave this matter to the tribunal to make a recommendation, but representatives of the engine men were obdurate, and insisted upon retrospective action from the date mentioned, thus taking the decision with regard to this important point out of the hands of the commission or tribunal to be appointed. "To this I could not agree, as being wrong in principle and unfair to other men who had waived this point to get over this difficulty. I proposed to accept the following: 'The conciliation commission, in reporting the result of its deliberations, to also report at what date in its opinion any increase in wages and any conditions should retrospectively commence.' I think any intelligent and unbiassed man will agree that was a fair proposal to make, but the men who profess to speak for the enginedrivers refused to consider it in' any way whatsoever. "At this stage the deliberations came to an end, and it became my duty to ask the people of the country to support the Government in getting the railways to work. I have always been of opinion, both as a Minister and private member, that the people in the employ of the State should have fair play and justice done them, and I think so still, but we cannot allow any small section to stick up the whole business of the Dominion railway system. The situation is a complicated one and difficult for outsiders to understand, but I have before me at the moment an official statement from the assistant manager of railways with y.gard to the average weekly earnings of engine-drivers in the North Island for the first three months this year. It shows first grade enginedrivers (of whom there are 110), who worked full time, earned on a weekly average £C 8s 9d, and second grade en-gine-drivers (120), working full time, earned £o 18s lid. It may be said this includes overtime, which, in the case of engine-drivers, means any work after ten o'clock at night, even when he has done no work at all previous to that. That is to say that very often, and especially in the case of Main Trunk engine-drivers, the whole time they are at work is paid for as overtime. "I might say I have no fault to find with the men of the Railway Officers' Institute or the A.S.R.S., but I must express the opinion that the locomotive men have been very badly advised in forcing a strike upon the country, and afterwards, when a settlement was being considered, taking up an utterly unreasonable attitude on a fatally important question of principle. lam afraid there is some influence at work* which has not yet appeared upon the surface."