, drivers, firemen, guards, signalmen, shunters,
platelayers and porters, and had not dealt with other classes; a wise
distinction I thought. It was much easier, they said, to regulate the
hours of persons occupying fixed posts of duty within reasonable limits,
than those of the running staff on railways, on account of the variety in
the nature of the work. They reported also that they were unable to
recommend a "legal day," as they considered it would be found
impracticable owing to the number of cases which must necessarily be
admitted as exceptions to any fixed limit of hours, adding that the hours
of railway servants engaged in working traffic cannot be regulated like
those in a factory, which, I may add, experience has abundantly shown. I
believe, and have always believed, in reasonable working hours, and have
often worked unreasonably long hours myself in endeavouring to arrange
them for others; and more than once when I have re-arranged a rota for
drivers, firemen and guards, to my own satisfaction, I have been begged
by the men concerned not to make any change and to let well alone; not,
of course, because the new rota gave shorter hours, but because it
prevented the men from getting to their homes or interfered with
something else that suited them.
Pages:
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263