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17 1953

GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY ACT, 1953

PART V.

Staff of Board.

Appointment of officers and servants of the Board.

36. —(1) The Board shall appoint a secretary and such other officers and servants as the Board may determine, and their remuneration shall be paid by the Board.

(2) Save as provided in this section and in section 37, entry to the clerical grades of the service of the Board shall be by means of open competitive examination in accordance with rules made by the Board.

(3) The Board may by special rules provide that such proportion as may be approved by the Minister and the Ministry of the vacancies in the clerical grades of its service shall be filled by means of limited competitive examinations, and where an examination is so limited only persons in or who have been in the employment of the Company or the Board shall be admitted thereto.

Transfer of officers and servants of the Company.

37. —Every person who, immediately before the establishment date, was an officer or servant of the Company shall on that date become an officer or servant of the Board on the same terms and conditions of service.

Compensation of employees whose services are dispensed with or conditions worsened on termination of train services.

38. —(1) Where the Board terminates wholly a transport service provided on any railway line of the undertaking and as a consequence thereof the retention of an officer or servant of the Board (being a person who is resident in the State and was theretofore directly employed on that service or wholly in connection therewith) in the position which he held before the termination becomes unnecessary, the following provisions shall have effect—

(a) if the Board dispenses with his services, he shall be paid by the Board compensation calculated in accordance with the Fourth Schedule to the Transport Act, 1950 (No. 12 of 1950), as adapted by subsection (2) of this section;

(b) if—

(i) the Board transfers him to another position in its service, and

(ii) he thereby suffers a worsening of his conditions of service as an officer or servant of the Board,

he shall be paid by the Board compensation consisting of a lump sum of such amount as is reasonable.

(2) For the purposes of this section—

(a) references in the Fourth Schedule to the Transport Act, 1950 , to a former transport company or a former road transport licensee shall be construed as references to the Company, and

(b) sections 41 to 43 of the said Act shall apply in regard to compensation under subsection (1) of this section, references to “the Board” being construed as references to the Board established under this Act.

(3) For the purposes of this section an officer or servant of the Board shall be deemed to suffer a worsening of his conditions of service as an officer or servant of the Board if, by reason of the transfer—

(a) he suffers any direct pecuniary loss or is in a worse position in respect of the conditions of his service as a whole (including tenure of office or employment, remuneration, gratuities, superannuation, sick fund or other benefits or allowances, whether obtaining legally or by customary practice and whether applicable to himself or his widow or children or other dependents) as compared with those obtaining in respect of him before the transfer, or

(b) he is required by the Board to perform in the position to which he is transferred duties which are not analogous to or are an unreasonable addition to those which he was required to perform in his former position.

Superannuation scheme.

39. —(1) The Board may prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme (in this section referred to as a superannuation scheme) for establishing on a contributory basis a superannuation fund for the benefit of the employees or any particular class of the employees of the Board or for amending a superannuation scheme already in force under this section.

(2) The Minister, after consultation with the Ministry, may, with the approval of the Minister for Finance, by order confirm, either without modification or with such modifications (whether by way of addition, omission or variation) as the Minister thinks fit, a superannuation scheme submitted under this section.

(3) No superannuation scheme shall become operative unless and until it has been confirmed by order of the Minister but, upon being so confirmed, it shall come into operation on the date specified in that behalf in the order and shall on and after that date have the force of law in the form in which it was so confirmed.

(4) A fund set up for the purposes of a superannuation scheme shall be deemed to be set up under an irrevocable trust.

Existing superannuation schemes.

40. —(1) In this section—

superannuation scheme” means any superannuation, pension, provident widows' and orphans' or other benefit fund or scheme,

existing superannuation scheme” means a superannuation scheme established by the Company and in existence immediately before the establishment date and includes the Railway Clearing System Superannuation Fund.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this section, every existing superannuation scheme and the management thereof shall, on and after the establishment date, continue in being.

(3) For the purposes of any statutory enactment and of rules and regulations relating to any existing superannuation scheme, the following provisions shall, on and after the establishment date, have effect:

(a) any power of the Company or the directors or any officer thereof in relation to the said scheme may be exercised by the Board or any officer of the Board authorised by the Board in that behalf,

(b) the service or employment or dismissal under or by the Board of any officer or servant of the Company who is transferred, by virtue of this Act, to the Board shall be deemed to be service or employment or dismissal under or by the Company,

(c) where under the rules of the said scheme the directors of the Company are empowered to appoint officers and servants to any managing committee, the Board in exercising those powers shall appoint officers or servants of the Board who are members of the said scheme or who, but for this Act, would have been eligible for appointment to such managing committee.

(4) The obligations, whether obtaining legally or by customary practice, of the Company in respect of any existing superannuation scheme and in respect of every member of the said existing superannuation scheme shall be binding on the Board.

(5) All persons who are or have been members of any existing superannuation scheme and all persons claiming in right of any such members shall be entitled to the same benefits, rights and privileges and subject to the same obligations, whether obtaining legally or by customary practice, as such persons would have been or might have become entitled or subject to but for this Act.

(6) Any person who—

(a) is in the service of the Company immediately before the establishment date, and

(b) is not a member of any existing superannuation scheme, shall, so long as he remains in the service of the Board, have the same right (if any) to become a member of any such scheme as he would have had but for this Act if he had remained in the service of the Company.

(7) Nothing in this section shall be construed as preventing the Board from amending an existing superannuation scheme in accordance with a power in that behalf contained therein.

(8) An existing superannuation scheme shall be deemed to have been set up under an irrevocable trust.

Regulation of conditions of service.

41. —The references in section 55 of the Railways Act, 1924 (No. 29 of 1924), and in sections 10 and 16 of the Railways Act, 1933 (No. 9 of 1933), to a railway company shall be construed as including references to the Board.