TAMAKI DRAINAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 261, 3 November 1932, Page 10

TAMAKI DRAINAGE.

WORK AT RELIEF RATES. PROTEST BY UNION. APPEAL TO CITY COUNCIL. "My union is deeply concerned by the announcement that it is proposed to pay unskilled workmen employed on drainage work at Tamaki at relief rates of wagee," states a letter signed by the secretary of the Auckland and Suburban Local Bodies' Industrial Union of Workers, Mr. Bernard Clews, and addressed to the Mayor and city councillors. The letter states that the ratepayers sanctioned a loan for the work and there was no intimation that the wage* were to be at relief rates; and that it. is against the spirit and letter of the law defining the powers of local bodies in relation to relief of unemployment to apply loan moneys for that purpose unless the loan was primarily for the purpose of relieving unemployment. Mr. Clews continues: —"If the funds raised by taxation for the relief of unemployment are applied to such a work, it will involve the application of funds raised for one clearly defined purpose to the distinct purpose of aiding a local body in carrying out what the local body itself regards as work necessary for the local body to have done. The application of relief rates to this work would involve a breach of the spirit and letter of the agreement with my union. The City Council entered into that agreement after negotiations were carried through in a frank and open manner by both sides. The provision* have been carried out in a • loyal and considerate manner. If such work as that at Tamaki is carried out at relief rates, .then Tor a great body of the workers the agreement has been rendered meaningless. A considerable number will soon be completing the work at Avondale, and they must either go on. relief rates or be replaced by others who do go on those rates. "Work at relief rates is expensive. With the best will in the world, the average man cannot work with the normal energy or efficiency, if he is .working under the hopeless conditions imposed upon him at the low rates allowed. Experience proves that relief work is necessarily expensive, despite, or, rather, because, of the low remuneration. "Wβ would earnestly request the council to consider the proposal further before carrying work out under conditions that increase the number of men with their wives and children living below the level of even a mean exist: ence. We suggest that the council should use every endeavour to resist the downward pressure of the standard of living among those who already are forced to live at the lowest'level."