RATIONING WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 42, 19 February 1931, Page 10

RATIONING WORK

STATE PBINTERY

COMPLAINT AND REPLY

A complaint regarding the manner in which employees of the Government Printing Office are being treated was made to a "Post" reporter to-day by a gentleman who has been employed there for a number of years. "Approximately 125 employees are on half time," he said, "and also thirty girls are working half timo. This number includes permanent staff hands, as well as casuals, Many casual Ijands have been dismissed, and other hands are off indefinitely. There is no undue slackness of work in the Printing Office, as some branches are working in the lunch hour to get out the work. A lot of married men, both permanent and casual, have been put off indefinitely. Most of these men have families; some have been on the permanent staff 20 years. The Government Printer and not' the Public Service Commissioner seems to be unduly dismissing the men when other branches of the Public Service have not been interfered with. With a little common sense and tact most, if not all, these men could be employed, and while there aro many casuals it is unfair to put off the permanent hands. Besides, the Government Printing Office last year made a profit of nearly £10,000, and why this unfair attack is made on the workers of this particular branch of the Civil Service calls for immediate investigation as they, the workers, are the, lowest paid in the Service. We believe that the Public Service Commissioner knows very little about this matter. The Printing Office ■ authorities want to show a profit." Inquiries made of the Public Service Commissioner indicate that the position is that at the present time there is insufficient work to justify the retention of the normal staff in the Government Printing Office. "The fact is," stated the Commissioner, "that in a printery, comprising varying skilled trades, each branch working more or less as a watertight compartment with distinct award conditions, it is not praeable to interchange employees. Although it is not possible, in consequence, to apportion the burden of the existing cLepression to a nicety, having full regard for claims on account of length of service and social responsibility, etc., work is being rationed among permanent men wherever practicable, and no permanent men have been put off indefinitely."