RELIEF WORKERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 35, 21 November 1939, Page 4

RELIEF WORKERS.

HITCH OVER ARRANGEMENTS. 104 MEN MAY HAVE TO GO. Unless difficulties that have cropped up between the Ashburton Borough Council and officers of the Labour Department can be cleared up, 104 men engaged by the council under the Nb. 13 Relief Scheme, mainly in the Domain, will have to be discharged. Explaining tho position to the Council last evening, the 'Mayor (Dr. ;G. I. Miller) said that officers of the 'Department had questioned certain types of work being carried out by the men under the direction of the Council, work that the officers claimed had not been authorised, and for which the wages subsidy could not be paid by the Government. The Minister for Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb) and at an earlier date the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, had urged the Council to find work for the men on the Ashburton register and the Council had - placed before them certain schemes of work in the Domain. These works had been agreed to by the Ministers., who had told the Council to go ahead with tho arrangements. If the Council was not to he allowed to go on and do the work as originally sanctioned by the Ministers, the, whole scheme would break down, and the men would have to be put off, as the Council could not stand the financial strain of keeping them at work. If the Departmental officers insisted on the production of written authorisations for every little job that the 'Ministers had agreed to r . the schemo could not continue and 104 men would have to be discharged.

It was agreed that the Mayor should conferi with the Hon. P. C. Webb at an early date, with a view to clarifying the position.