Employers and recruiting
North Eastern Railway's assistance to railway men enlisting
The North Eastern Railway Co. announce that it is their intention, in the case of all men in their employ who may serve in the Navy or Army during the war to keep their places open for them; to make to their wives, children or dependants an adequate allowance, the details of which can be obtained by those interested on application; and finally, as far as possible to allow the families to continue to occupy the company’s houses
The company are issuing particulars of the arrangements they are making to all their staff.
This pronouncement should go a long way towards assisting any member of the North Eastern Company’s staff who may be in doubt to a decision, and it is hoped that large employers of labour, who may not have stated their intention, may see their way to do so and so remove any doubts that may exist on the part of those of their employees who may be anxious to serve their country at this time of stress but who for family reasons have been momentarily holding back.
Employers and Recruiting.
One of the greatest assistance which employers both large and small can give to recruiting at the present time is to publish to their men without delay the fullest consideration they are prepared to give to their families and otherwise.
The following figures give illustrations of the army pay deducted from a soldier’s pay and remitted to his wife prescribed by the military authorities, and the amounts by which these allowances would have to be supplemented by the employers to bring the income of the man’s wife, while he is serving his country during the war, to three-quarters and four-fifths of his civil pay, and the employers might well consider whether they could see their way to help their employees to serve their country by making a pronouncement of the extent to which they are prepared to supplement the army pay and separation allowance remitted by the military authorities to the wives of the men enlisting.
The proportion of army pay remitted to the wife of a private with no children is 3s 6d a week, and separation allowance 7s 7d. If the man was receiving 20s a week civil pay, it would need 3s 11d to bring the pay up to four-fifths. The army pay of a man with 25s a week would need to be supplemented by 7s 8d and 8s 11d, and with 50s a week the supplementary pay would be 26s 5d and 28s 11d, according to whether the amount was made up to three-quarters or four-fifths.
Remittance to Wife With Family.
A private with a wife and two children would have 4s 8d remitted to his wife and 9s 11d separation allowance, which would only need 5d per week to bring the pay up to three-quarters and 1s 5d to bring the pay up to four-fifths of his civil pay of 20s a week.
A man who was getting 25s a week would need 4s 2d, or 5s 5d supplementary allowance and with 50s a week the supplementary allowance would be 2s 11d to bring the family’s income to three-quarters and 25s 5d to bring it to four-fifths of the civil pay. The latter figures also apply to a volunteer or man (with wife and two children) enlisting to serve during the period of the war.
Date: 26-Aug-1914
Author: Auckland Chronicle
Reference: D/WP 4/37 Microfilm Reference M61/34
Where to find this: Durham County Record Office
Contributed by Fiona Johnson - Durham
