INQUIRY INTO EARNINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 11

INQUIRY INTO EARNINGS.

RELIEF MEN'S FAMILIES,

PROTEST IN HOUSE.

OFFEXSIVJE METHODS ALLEGED.

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, Friday

The foriii of the inquiries the Labour Department is 'making into the earnings of the families of relief workers was the subject of a vehement protest by Mr. J. A. Lee (Labour, Grey Lynn) in the House this morning.

Mr. Lee said the Minister, without delay, should give the House some information as to the number of Labour Department employees who were engaged "to spy into people's homes and discover whether they are letting rooms, whether the wife of an individual who is receiving a small amount of unemployment assistance is scrubbing out Offices in order to get something towards the rates so that the home can be retained, or to! earn- a few shillings for the purchase of a pair, of shoes." He •asserted that some appeared to have been selected for their capacity to offend rather than for their tactfulne€s.

Mr. Lee contended, that the Minister should reconsider the question of whether it was desirable that the unemployment fund should be utilised to subsidise) and pay • the wages of a host of inspectors who .ran round, the back doors of people's homes finding out the nature of their furniture or the vegetables .in the garden, and whether the eons or daughters ;»\fere helping to supplement the weekly earnings bj distributing newspapers or selling milk, before relief- to the individual was granted. The whole administrative policy in that respect was wrong. The position was that immediately some anonymous person wrote to the Department stating that an individual was earning an extra half-crown a week one of the officials was round the back door of the home, bullying some woman with the full authority of the Government. He asked the Minister to state what tests were applied to ensure that the individuals engaged in detection work were qualified, arid what wages were paid. Their wages should not be oue cent more than those received by the people who were "under the lash."