Railway Wages This week the Railway Staff National Tribunal, of
which Sir Arthur Salter is the Chairman, began its hearing of the claims put forward by the three railway unions. They include demands for the restoration of the ri per cent. balance remaining of the wage-cuts imposed in 1931, and of the conditions for night duty, overtime and Sunday duty which prevailed before 1931, a minimum wage of £2 los. a week for adults, and increased holidays with pay. The granting of the demands would involve an increase in the wage costs of the railways of some £15,00o,00o a year, but the railwaymen base their claims on the increase in the revenues of the railway companies since 1931. It will be remembered that at the beginning of this year the Tribunal rejected similar claims made by the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, because they could not be conceded to locomotive men alone and if granted to all three unions would be exorbitant. But on that occasion the Tribunal both expressed the view that railway employees should be the first to share in the benefits of increased revenues, and encouraged the belief that a new claim, later in the year, by all three unions for a restoration of standard rates (the wages of six years ago) would be likely to succeed.
* * *
Previous page
