NRS-15936 | Personnel Files of Staff Engaged in Military Service - Locomotive Depot, Casino

This series consists of the personnel files of staff employed by the Locomotive Depot, Casino while engaged in military service during the Second World War. The series records regular payment of wages, salaries and allowances due to employees in conjunction with Defence Pay, superannuation contributions and deductions. In conjunction with Defence Pay, staff whose employment was interrupted by military service were entitled to the continued payment of a wage or salary from State Rail along with other allowances, as well as the maintenance of their superannuation funds. Factors determining rates of pay included the position or grading an employee had before commencing military service, the level of pay received from the Military, and the Climatic Zone an employee was serving in.Staff are recorded to have participated in various Armed Services during the War including the Volunteer Military (Australian Imperial Force [AIF], Navy, Air Force, Reserves), Returned Soldiers Volunteer Defence Corps, Compulsory Military Forces and Militia. Files typically have a jacket with the employee’s name and position hand-written on the front. Some also bear a military file number.Files belonging to employees enlisted in the Volunteer Military commence with an application for permission to join the Services. This notice includes the full name of the employee, classification, date of birth, marital status, length of continuous service and total service with State Rail prior to date of application.The Secretary for Railways granted approval for employees to enlist, dependant upon Commonwealth Manpower Regulations. The Military then notified State Rail that the employee was to report for medical and other examinations, and would commence training at a particular date if successful. A "Certificate of Service" is provided in each of these files specifying the employee’s name, Defence Service, date of mobilisation, Depot or Camp, rates of pay and allowances. Files of employees required for Compulsory Military Service contain a "Certificate of Service with the Compulsory Military Forces" which includes the employee’s name, grade, departmental location and branch. This certificate confirmed the employee had commenced training at a particular date, and includes the signature of the Camp Paymaster and Unit Stamp.Either Certificate was required by State Rail as evidence of participation in the Armed Forces by an employee before any payments could be made, and was accompanied by a confirmation certificate from the Finance Branch.All files include copies of the "Record of Payments allowed to Employees on Military, Naval or Air Force Service" form which recorded payments made by State Rail and the Military per fortnight. Entries record Fortnight Ended, Departmental Pay, Military Pay, and Difference in Pay. The ‘Remarks’ column usually included a note about superannuation contributions. This form also contained information about methods of payment, either being sent to a person nominated by the employee or deferred.A notification of discharge from military service or death resulted in the halt to all State Rail and Military payments. A normal wage or salary was paid once an employee resumed work with State Rail, some files specifying the date duties were recommenced.Correspondence in many files concerns the correction of errors made in payments or deductions, and methods of retrieving monies in arrears. Such errors noted in this series are attributed to a variety of causes. The lack of synchronisation with changes to Defence Pay, failure to declare absences from Compulsory Training, failing to declare date of commencement or discharge from the Armed Forces and general miscalculations usually resulted in overpayments or underpayments being made. Employees not contributing to a superannuation fund during Military Service also caused difficulties. Employees were asked to repay monies in arrears, usually via a deduction to wage or salary of an amount nominated by the employee over a period of several months or years. Underpayments were usually settled via a lump sum payment. A small number of files record a judgement being in favour of a particular party, indicating that legal proceedings had taken place. Many files requiring retrieval of monies in arrears remained open into the immediate Post-war years.The final two files of the series contain Statistical Returns for staff granted leave for service in the Defence Forces. Returns were provided on a fortnightly basis, and note the numbers of staff serving for the duration of the War at home and abroad, as well as those engaged in Militia and Compulsory Training. Separate Returns are provided for wage and salaried staff.Custody History:From 1955 until 2000 the State Rail Authority of New South Wales maintained an ‘in house archives’ consisting of the archival records of the Authority, its predecessor agencies and the private railway companies taken over by the government. The date ranges of the records were from 1849 until 2000. When the decision was made to close the ‘State Rail Archives’ the parts of the collection that were required as State archives were transferred to the State Records Authority of NSW. Those record series were incorporated into the State Records series system of archives control and were re-numbered.This series was formerly part of the State Rail Archives collection where it was identified as series R223. It may have been viewed in the State Rail Archives as series R223 and could have been previously cited as such in notes by researchers at State Rail Archives or in publications or unpublished works