RELIEF PAY ANOMALY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 159, 8 July 1935, Page 8

RELIEF PAY ANOMALY.

COUNTY CHAIRMAN'S VIEW.

■ LETTER TO THE MINISTER. Anomalies in the new rates payable to relief -workers are pointed out by Mr. W. A. Bishop, chairman of the Waitemata County Council, in a letter forwarded today to the Minister of Employment. Mr. Bishop says the local bodies have the right only to make the men work the extra hours to cover the additional 2/ to single men and 3/ to married men, to the nearest half-day. A man who is required to work 18 hours to receive £1 4/ need work only 16 hours, and a man who is required to work 27 hours to receive £1 16/ need work only 24 hours and receive the same pay as the man who has to work 24 hours and receives £1 12/. To illustrate his point Mr. Bishop stated this morning that the man whose hours have been increased from 22 to 24 has to work the two extra hours, because the 24 hours make three even days, but the man whose hours have been increased from 25 to 27 need now work only 24 hours, because he does not have to work any odd hours which go over the half-day or an even day. But whereas the first-mentioned man receives £1 12/ the second receives £1 16/. The possibility of the workers refusing to work the extra hours was mentioned by Mr. Bishop who said that if the men adopted that attitude their earnings would be reduced. The Labour Department had introduced a new scale of pay which covered broken time and if men refused to work the number of hours now set out, to the" nearest half-day, and adhered to the old hours, they would receive less money than before. This would be the result of the new scale covering broken time. Mr. Bishop said he considered the new scale of pay and hours most unfair and he was suggesting to the Minister a 10 or 15 per cent increase on the old rates of pay, without requiring any additional time being worked.