RELIEF WORKERS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 35, 20 November 1937, Page 2

RELIEF WORKERS

HOLIDAY PAYMENTS. THE CHRISTMAS tfONUS. fPer Press Association.) WELLINGTON, November 19. Arrangements authorised in connection with the granting of Christmas and New Year holidays, and the payment of a Christmas bonus to relief workers were announced this evening by the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong). Following the practice in past years, two weeks’ holiday will be granted nil workers employed under Scheme 5, and to gold prospectors subsidised by the Labour Department. The holidays will be granted in the two weeks ending January 1 and January 8, 1938, hut to enable the employing authorities to pay the wages due for the week ending December 25, 1937, prior to the holidays, all Scheme 5 works will be closed down on Wednesday, December 22, and any men who would normally report for work on Thursday or Friday, December 23 and 24, will be paid for those days. With regard to those men . employed under Scheme 13 on special rotational full-,time- works, these works will be closed down during the two weeks ending January 1 and January 8, and the men will be paid at the sustenance rates applicable to their respective classifications. These men will also receive a special Christmas bonus, and their period of full-time employment will be extended for two weeks so that the holidays will not be treated as part of the approved period of employment under this scheme. In the case of workers employed fulltime on subsidised works other than those approved under the special rotational full-time employment scheme, the usual practice will he followed, on approved subsidy from the Employment Promotion Fund being paid, in respect of any holidays granted, provided the employing authority meets its proportion of the wages cost. The Christmas bonus will be on the same basis as last year, £2 for married men, £1 for single men. The conditions of eligibility have not yet been determined, but these are at present under consideration, and a further statement will be issued. Transport concessions similar to those made available in past years will he granted workers employed in the Paraparaumu camp and those employed under the gold, prospecting scheme.