§ Mr. GOULDINGI beg to ask leave to bring in a Bill "to secure for every clerk employed by a railway company Sunday rest or a free and uninterrupted rest day of twenty-four hours in each week."
It is certainly bad policy to allow, except under necessity, labour on seven days a week, as no opportunity is afforded to the citizen for any rest or recreation. It is now universally admitted that the State must be a model employer of labour, and must provide for those directly under their control, reasonable opportunities for rest and leisure. It is obvious that in the spheres of employment those who come close to the standard of the State, created by Parliamentary authority, have certain privileges accorded to them by reason of that fact. The State has for years back taken a definite interest in the hours of labour of those connected with railways. The Act of 1887 and the Act of 1903, while unfortunately excepting the clerks of the permanent staff, have secured great advantages; to the employés, to the public, and, without much injustice or any injustice, to the railway companies themselves. The Board of Trade has no discretionary control whatsoever over the clerical staff. During recent years the tendency of Sunday traffic and travelling has been to enormously increase, and that day is often the hardest day's work in the year for station masters and clerks. The tendency of the public is to travel on a Sunday and get out into the country. Railway companies encourage that traffic as a source of profit to themselves, and it is equally 2015 right that those who have this extra duty put upon them should also share in some of the advantages. Some of the railway companies have recognised their obligations and have re-arranged their conditions of labour; but I regret to say that some of the chief and wealthiest in the country have done nothing whatsoever to meet their obligations in regard to this matter. A memorial was presented in February, 1907, asking that six days should constitute a week's work, and Sundays should be counted as extra duty. Deputations and negotiations have gone on ever since that date until now, and this grievance still remains unredressed. I am only going to give two or three examples of the conditions of some of these people to-day.
Clerks work six days; they have no half-holiday; and they work on alternate Sundays from 8.40 a.m. to 8.20 p.m., with simply intervals for meals. They receive no extra remuneration whatsoever. They have annual leave, but against that is set off the fact that they have always to work on Bank Holidays. There is a certain railway where there is no Sunday extra pay whatsoever, and the men work alternate Sundays for 11¼ hours with no intervals for meals. Station masters are in exactly the same category. They are on duty the whole year round, week-days and Sundays; they must not leave the locality, and their annual leave gives them the opportunity for only one or two Sundays away. The Bill proposes that the clerical staff and station masters should have a Sunday free or a rest day in each week; the clerks should be free on at least alternate Sundays, and Sunday duty shall be paid for at not less than time and a quarter, the Board of Trade to see that the Act is enforced. The evils are manifest and they call for a remedy. This week we have been dealing with the shop hours of assistants, but I am perfectly convinced that if we are to check the growth of class passion in this country, this House must show its actual consideration for the lives and duties of the people themselves. We must remove and lessen the mischievous and cruel evils which are often enforced upon those individuals who have often no time to discharge the obligations of home life. There are two problems before us to-day—always present—the problem of unemployment and the problem of over-work. I believe that we may mitigate the one by alleviating the other. I am equally certain that class hatred is 2016 really entirely foreign to the national instincts of our people, and it can only be engendered if legislators in this House simply seek party triumphs for themselves and do not bestir themselves to deal with the pressing social reforms which confront them to-day.
Bill to secure for every clerk employed by a railway company Sunday rest or a free and uninterrupted rest day of twenty-four hours in each week, ordered to be brought in by Mr. Goulding, Sir George Doughty, Mr. Frederick Edwin Smith, Viscount Wolmer, Mr. Ernest Pollock, Major Archer-Shee, Mr. Cooper, Sir Gilbert Parker, Mr. Godfrey Locker-Lampson, Mr. Leslie Scott, Mr. Paget, and Mr. Page Croft. Presented accordingly, and read the first time; to be read a second time upon Tuesday, 18th April.