EMPLOYERS APPROVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 243, 14 October 1931, Page 10

EMPLOYERS APPROVE.

REPRODUCTIVE WORK.

AWARD RULES CRITICISED

PREVENTING EMPLOYMENT.

Representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and the Employers' Association, expressed approval of the general principles of Mr. Coates' scheme.

The essential thing, said Mr. A.. M. Seaman, president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, was to spend the i funds in a reproductive way. For a long | time past the chamber had repeatedly emphasised that point, and had urged that it was against the country's interest to go on spending money on work that was purely wasteful. He considered Mr. Coates' proposals were sound. Development work on unproductive lands held out. the best prospects of a permanent advantage, said Mr. S. E. Wright, secretary of the Employers' Association. Even if some of the money were lost the balance would be reproductive. The association had always held that relief should be given only by means of useful work. Any charitable relief should be through the hospital boards, and, if necessary, the Govern- ; nient subsidies should be increased to ] meet the demand. Employers had always approved the No. 4a schema, and they appreciated that under the No. 5 scheme much useful work had been done, although a great deal of money was wasted. Regarding the position of boys, lie said that the restrictions upon their entry into trades had been disastrous. He considered it far better that a' man whose character was already formed should be on unemployed works than that boys at.their formative age should be walking idly about. The restriction on the number of apprentices and shop assistants had placed a serious obstacle in the way of boys. Girls and Cookery. .At the annual meeting of the New Zealand Employers' Federation in Wellington next week those matters would be fully discussed, said Mr. Wright. The position of unemployed girls was also one for concern. It was a I curious anomaly that a girl wishing to learn cookery either at a bakery, cake shop, restaurant or hotel was deprived of the opportunity by the Arbitration award. It Was a peculiar position that cooking, which was such an essential work, suitable for women, involved such excessive costs to the employers that i they were practically debarred from taking on learners. As an instance, under the. restaurant and tearooms award, it would cost an employer £2 18/3, and two meals a day, in addition to engage a learner in a two-hand restaurant or two-room kitchen. The same applied to private hotels.

There was no diffic-ulty in placing women who could cook, he concluded. For them there was an unsatisfied demand, and there were good openings for girls who knew their work in the kitchen.'