Railways Act 1921

Sections 3, 5, and 14.

THIRD SCHEDULE Existing Officers and Servants.

The following provisions shall apply in respect to persons who at the date of the passing of this Act are, and for a period of not less than five years have been, officers or servants of any constituent company or subsidiary company, and who shall not, prior to the amalgamation or absorption of such constituent or subsidiary company, have become pensioners or annuitants in accordance with the rules of any railway pension or superannuation fund of which they may be members, or have voluntarily retired, or have been removed from the service of any such constituent or subsidiary company by reason of misconduct or incapacity (all of which officers and servants are in this Schedule hereinafter referred to as " existing officers and servants "):—

(1) Every existing officer and servant shall, as from the date of amalgamation or absorption, become an officer or servant of the amalgamated company:

(2) The amalgamated company may abolish the office or situation of any existing officer or servant which they deem unnecessary, and any existing officer or servant required to perform duties such as are not analogous or which are an unreasonable addition to those which as an officer or servant of the company from whom he was transferred he was required to perform may relinquish his office or situation :

(3) No existing officer or servant so transferred shall, without his consent, be by reason of such transfer in any worse position in respect to the conditions of his service as a whole (including tenure of office, remuneration, gratuities, pension, superannuation, sick fund or any benefits or allowances whether obtaining legally or by customary practice of the constituent or subsidiary company) as compared with the conditions of service formerly obtaining with respect to him:

(4) If any question arises as to whether the provisions of the last foregoing paragraph have been complied with, the question shall be referred to a standing arbitrator or board of arbitration appointed by the Lord Chancellor, and, if the arbitrator or board consider that those provisions have not been complied with, and that the officer or servant has thereby suffered lot" or injury, they shall award him such sum to be paid by the amalgamated company as they think sufficient to compensate him for such loss or injury:

(5) Every existing officer or servant whose office or situation is so abolished or who so relinquishes his office or service or whose services are dispensed with on the ground that they are not required or for any reason not being on account of any misconduct or incapacity, or whose salary, wages, or remuneration are reduced on the ground that his duties have been diminished, or who otherwise suffers any direct pecuniary loss by reason of the amalgamation or absorption (including any loss of prospective superannuation or other retiring or death allowances and allowances payable to his widow or orphan children, whether obtaining legally or by customary practice of the constituent or subsidiary company), shall be entitled to be paid compensation for such pecuniary loss, to be determined and paid by the amalgamated company, subject to appeal to such standing arbitrator or board of arbitration as aforesaid, in accordance with the provisions contained in section, one hundred and twenty of the [51 & 52 Vict. c. 41.] Local Government Act, 1888, relating to compensation to existing officers, and those provisions shall apply accordingly as if they were herein re-enacted with the necessary modifications. For the purpose of this schedule, any solicitor who Was continuously retained by a company as their chief legal adviser for the period of five years before the passing of this Act shall be deemed to be an existing officer of the company:

Provided that, in the case of any officer or servant who was appointed to his office as a specially qualified person at an age exceeding that at which public service usually begins or of any officer or servant who suffers any loss of prospective superannuation or other retiring or death allowances as aforesaid, such addition may be made to the amount of compensation authorised under the said provisions as may seem just, having regard to the particular circumstances of such case:

Provided further that the expression in subsection (1) of section one hundred and twenty of the Local Government Act, 1888, "the Acts and Rules relating to Her Majesty's Civil Service " shall mean the Acts and Rules relating to His Majesty's Civil Service which were in operation at the date of the passing of the Local Government Act, 1888.

(6) The fee payable to an arbitrator or member of a board of arbitration under this Schedule shall be such as the Lord Chancellor may fix, and that fee shall be paid by the amalgamated company concerned.