BUILDING TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 130, 5 June 1933, Page 9

BUILDING TRADE.

EMPLOYMENT SCHEME SUBSIDY TO BE EXTENDED. IMPORTANCE OF INDUSTRY. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLING TON, Sunday. A statement made this evening by the Unemployment Board announces the board's No. 10 scheme on more liberal lines. The deputy-chairman of the board, Mr. J. S. Jessep, stated that the subsidy, which was formerly restricted to men engaged from (lie unemployment register, would now be payable at the rate of up to one-third of award wages in respect of all workers engaged on buildings. Where men were engaged on the erection of a dwelling to a cost of not more than £GSO this subsidy would be increased to 50 per cent. These payments would apply only to men actually working on the sites of jobs, but the board had under consideration proposals to extend the scope of the scheme to tradesmen, such as joiners, whose work, while essential to a job, might bo done 1 elsewhere. "A .principal duty laid upon the Unemployment Board by the legislation which it administers," stated Mr. Jessep, in explaining the reasons for the reintroduction of the scheme in its altered form, "is that of creating employment as distinct from merely relieving unemployment. This requires the expenditure of relief funds in such directions as will induce tho spending of further money from private sources and enable tho reabsorption of labour into its accustomed channels. I

Significcnt Percentage. "Tho building trade and all allied occupations account for a very large percentage of the total registered unemployed, and it is estimated that the percentage of unemployed workers within that industry is !)0 per cent," said Mr. Jesse]). ''It is perfectly obvious, therefore, that anything which the board can do to stimulate the building industry must produce a more marked improvement in the general unemployment situation than could similar measures applied in any other trade. Building trade workers are nearly all highly skilled tradesmen, and on relief works full use cannot Tje made of their capabilities. This is not good business, nor is it good for the men themselves, whose efficiency in their crafts tends to diminish. At tho same time, there exists an urgent need for houses which workers can afford on their present-day means. These were the considerations when tho Unemployment Board introduced the former No. 10 scheme early last year and they hold good to-day.

"The ofTcots of the okl No. 10 scheme as far as it went were fjood, but the cxpcricncc gained by the board in operating tlie scheme showed that the full benefit could not be obtained unless it were made still more comprehensive and freer from restrictions," said Mr. Jessep.

The conditions oF the former scheme regarding hours of work were recalled by Mr. Jesse]). "It has already been mentioned that the percentage of building tradesmen who are unemployed is now neaufr 90 than 20, and in order that the benefit of the funds available for the scheme may be spread as widely as possible over the men it has been decided to pay a subsidy on 40 hours' work a week."

Labour Leaders' Assurance. "This aspect of the proposal tends to project it into a sphere in which tlic views of trade unions and employers are not as a rule in consonance, but prominent Labour officials have given the board an unequivocal assurance of their appreciation that the board, in its efforts to meet the exigencies of the situation, is at times obliged to take steps which unionists would normally oppose. They have further assured the board that they do not regard any action of the board under special circumstances as establishing a precedent applicable to normal times.

Representations were made from another quarter with the object of having the subsid3 r applied to jobs on which the hours of work extended beyond the subsidised number of 40. This proposal would not, however, be a factor favourable to the aim of the board to have the work spread as far as possible among unemployed tradesmen, and it was, in fact, pronounced by certain largo contractors as undesirable and unworkable.

"The main objects of the scheme," concluded Mr. Jessep, "are the revitalising of a stagnant industry, the reabsorption of skilled tradesmen into their callings and the provision of needed housing accommodation for workers. The influence of successful and comprehensive activities having those specific objectives will open up extensive consequential avenues of employment that are closed at present. The Unemployment Board will do all it can to make the schcmo workable and cffcctive. It looks to both the employers and workers to do their part toward producing creditable results. More detailed information of the scheme will be made available almost immediately to the trade."