NEW MINIMUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 22, 27 January 1936, Page 8

NEW MINIMUM.

i PUBLIQ WORKS PAY. PROMISE OF 14/8 A DAY. MANGERE 'DROME STRIKE. ■ Strikers at the Mangere aerodrome were informed to-day by Mr. F. E. Lark, organising secretary of the Auckland Provincial Unemployed Workers' Association, that while he was in Welling- ' ton last week endeavouring to settle their troubles the Minister of Public ■ Works, the Hon. R. Semple, had > promised thai, within a month an agree- ' nient would be reached fixing the mini- . mum wage for men employed on public ; works at 14/S a day. When asked whether a forty-hour : week would also be introduced, Mr. Lark said that that question had not been decided, but that 110 doubt it would ' be put in operation and in that event wages would be adjusted accordingly. ! As a result of Mr. Lark's statement and a conference with the engineers 011 the job the men decided to resume work under protest for one month. In a resolution which was carried unanimously the men expressed dissatisfac- | tion at the rate of 12/ a day on which [ the aerodrome contract was based and affirmed that the rate should be 14/ a day and that while agreeing to resume work for one month it was conditional . on a promise being given by a responsible, official or Minister that the rate would be altered and that the men would receive advance payments of £2 5/ a week when the month expired. , Embarrassed. [ Mr. Lark's statement of the promise . made by Mr. Semple was the result of a meeting of the 300 strikers who . downed tools last Friday—and this for the second time this month —on account , of their dissatisfaction with the wages and conditions 011 the job. It was when Mr. W. J. Lyon, M.P. (president) and ; Mr. Lark were in Wellington as the result of the first strike that the decision to again leave the job was decided upon, and in his initial remarks at this morning's meeting Mr. Lark took the men to task for embarrassing him and the" Government when negotiations were being held in Wellington for a settlement of the difficulties that the men had complained of. The men were in a most uncompro--1 mising mood when the meeting opened, and when it was suggested that they should at least return to work while their delegates held conversations with the Public Works officers with a view to ascertaining exactly from the timesheets what the men had earned, refusal was almost unanimously expressed and the men stood or lounged about in groups for a couple of hours until Mr. Lark" again called them together to report progress. During the discussion with the Public Works officers the position was frankly discussed in an informal way and it was shown that a large proportion of the men who were sent 011 to the job by the Labour Department in Auckland were not fit for hard manual : labour. Mr. Lark complained that for i the men it was a question of "Hobson's . choice"—take it or leave it. There was , no alternative for those men but navvy- ; ing at Mangere. Men's Fitness. "A man may be a good undertaker or a good butcher," said Mr. Lark, "but that does not qualify him for hard manual work. Such men may eventually become navvies. I have talked matter over with Mr. Semple," he continued, "and the Minister is of opinion that men who have been treated as they have during the last five years cannot get back into good physical condition in five minutes." The Rate Earned. After the conference between Mr. Lark and the Public Works engineers the men were given details of what they had earned on the joib, the time sheets disclosing that only seven of some 20 or more gangs had earned 1/6 an hour, while some had earned only 9d. Bitter complaints were made that it was impossible to earn wages on the job and that men were far better off on sustenance in the city. > They said that they never knew what they were going to receive at the end of the week and could give no satisfaction in that respect to the landlord, the baker, the grocer or the butcher.. Some of the men, they said, had been definitely guaranteed 12/ a day for a month, when they first went on the job, but in the New Year every man had to go on contract. Experiences were related' by a number of men in regard to the hard work they had put in; but owing to wet weather and the conditions generally they were able to obtain only No. 5 scheme rates and part of this was merely a gift from the Unemployment Board to make up for lost time. The main complaint of the men. was that they could not earn sufficient to buy themselves proper food for the hard work they had had to put in. New Conditions. Mr. Lark informed the men that in the new order of things gangs would have the right to elect their own leaders and the latter would have the right of placing any suggestions for the better working of the job before the supervisor. TJie Public Works Minister, he said, had a thorough knowledge of the conditions of work being carried out under relief schemes throughout New Zealand and in a few weeks' time county councils would be prevented from exploiting the men in camps as had been the case in the past. Many county council camps had already been closed down and from what he had learned no more men would be sent to such jobs. He also said that it would be the policy of the Government to make no differentiation between the rates received by married men and single men. A mistake had been made by the Public Works Department in Auckland 111 the method of computing the contract work at the Mangere aerodrome and that was being rectified by each week being computed separately./ If owing to wet weather or any other conditions a man did not earn as much as he would have receive® under No. 5 scheme his earnings would be made up to that amount. If in the following week he earned more under the contract than would have been paid under No. o scheme no deduction would be made because in the previous week he had received a gratuitous payment to make up the amount to No. 5 rates. Each week would stand by itself in respect to moneys earned. • The Minister realised, Mr. Lark added, that men were not physically fit when they came on to relief jobs and a "get fit" allowance of 15 per cent would be made on the various jobs. Mr. Semple also realised that the onus was on the men in the gangs to pull their weight, but the onus was not upon them to liclp from their pay envelopes men who could not do a fair day's work. They should not liave to carry unfit or unwilling men.

A Voice: Lack of nourishment is the trouble. Single Men's Position. Mr. Lark said that the Government realised there were many anomalies both in respect to the Unemployment and the Public Works Departments, which could only be rectlffed when Parliament met. For instance, he pointed out that single men on the job who had accepted the contract rate had 25 per cent deducted from their earnings because they were single men. That was illegal and wrong, and if the contract was fixed and signed at a certain price that amount should be paid to the men, whether they were single or married. "And," he added, "one of the first things that Parliament will be called on to do next month will be to expunge the law that provides for this differentiation." At the final mass meeting of the men there was much dissatisfaction expressed, and one worker went as far as to advise the declaration of the job "black" in the meantime, and there were many murmurs to the effect that it did not seem that for the present at any rate conditions were going to be much different from what they had been in the past. Calmer counsels prevailed, however, the men deciding, as already stated, to return to work under protest for one month. From expressions given privately after the meeting it is more than likely that those men who feel that they are not able to earn a living wage at the contract rate provided will return to their homes, Mr. Lark assuring tlicm that they would be able to get sustenance and would be in no way victimised.