ORGANISER'S STATEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 123, 27 May 1930, Page 7

ORGANISER'S STATEMENT.

WORKEKS ON LINE STAFF. CASES OP ILLNESS. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. Commenting prior to the Minister's statement on the instructions to the effect that if casual employees ot the Post arid Telegraph Department ceased work through illness or any other cause they were to be discharged, Mr. H. H. Brown, organiser for the Employees' Association, stated that a man had just applied for a fortnight's leave to go under an operation in hospital in the Auckland district, and had been discharged and given to understand that he would not be re-engaged, although he bad had six years' service. •

"Most of the men affected by the circular," said Mr. Brown, "are employed on the line . staff. Their duties entail working in all kinds of weather in the repair and maintenance of the telegraph and telephone services. They have to work, in wet weather, especially in the winter months. They are naturally very often subject to severe colds, influenza, lumbago and complaints of that kind, and necessarily have to remain off duty sick. "Under the circular issued, these men will now have their services dispensed with, and even after they have recovered, if the strict letter of the instruction be carried out, they cannot be reengaged. Instances have previously occurred where a temporary man, as the result of working in the wet, has been laid aside by sickness of a serious nature for a considerable period. There was the case of a man who was in hospital for six months and when he came out he was refused employment by the Department. "The workmen who are referred to in the circular are temporary employees of the Department," continued Mr. Brown, "many of whom have up to five or sis years' service to their credit. They are in an unfortunate position, since they are denied the right to make their representations in regard to conditions of employment to the Government or the Department through the organisation to which they belong. It follows that the only method they can employ to give publicity to a matter of this kind is to refer to* members of Parliament, as has already been done in one case. "These men, many of whom are married with families dependent on them, are required to do work which is more or less of a skilled nature, but they are only paid at the rate of 1/9| an hour, or £3* 19/9 for a full week's work of 44 hours.

"The treatment meted out to its temporary employees by the Government 1 when they are absent from work through illness is entirely different from that accorded by private employers, especially where sickness is due to conditions of employment," concluded Mr. Brown. •