LESS WORK-OR NONE?

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 130, 4 June 1930, Page 8

LESS WORK-OR NONE?

*MOUNT EDEN EMPLOYEES.

COUNCIL'S RETRENCHMENT

ROTARY SYSTEM ADVOCATED.

9 wing to the funds of the' Mount Eden Borough Council being at a low ebb, a meeting of a committee set up to go into the position will be held this evening. It is recognised that some form- of retrenchment will have to be carried out, but just what form this will take will rest with the committee.

At the last meeting of the council it was decided that the services of eleven men, employed on the outside staff, be dispensed with. At that meeting Mr. W. G. Lang suggested that instead of the mens services being dispensed with, a system of rotation should be introduced, by which the men would lose one week's work in every three or four.

"Extreme Hardship." This morning Mr. Lange said that since the announcement had been published of Tim decision to dismiss eleven men he had been approached by many ratepayers in the borough, who expressed the opinion that his suggestion of putting into operation the rotary system was the better one. "Times are so hard with everyone, and particularly the unskilled worker," said Mr. Lange, "that it is the extreme hardship to throw any man out of work. It is almost impossible to get a job of any sort, and I personally think, and I know there are many others who hold the same view, that half a loaf is better than none, and I feel sure that the rotation system, which works successfully in many of the business firms in the city when business is slack, could just as easily be employed by the. Mount Eden Borough Council. The point about it is that it is fair to all.

Enough to Last Winter. "There are about 30 men employed on the outside staff doing road construction out of loan moneys," added Mr. Lange, "and not one of the men.can be classed as a permanent hand. The loans are almost exhausted, and the money left is sufficient to keep the whole of the men going throughout the winter if my suggestion that each man lose one week in three or four is adopted. Instead of being thrown completely out of work, with little hopes of securing another job, the men would all earn sufficient at least to keep the home going. .Some of the men it is proposed to dismiss are married, with wives and children to keep, and when such a man finds it hard to make ends meet at the best, of times it is sad to think of him beings thrown out of work. By the rotary system no preference is shown to any particular employees, and I hope that when the committee meet this evening they give the matter favourable consideration."