FINDING WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 104, 4 May 1936, Page 8

FINDING WORK.

VOCATIONAL PLAN. APPROVAL LENT TO SCHEME. OPINIONS OF EMPLOYERS. Willingness to co-operate with any scheme which is likely to lead to the rehabilitation of men in industry was expressed this morning by several Auckland businessmen, in commenting on the scheme which has been introduced by the Labour Department in the principal centres of the Dominion for the purpose of bringing men anxious for work into contact with employers.

The Department is at present engaged in organising a vocational analysis, not only of registered relief workers, but also oI those who are disengaged and who, though not desirous of seeking relief benefits, wish to be assisted in their endeavours to obtain private employment. Invitations have already been extended to unemployed men to register with the Department, which will undertake the work of classifying them in their correct occupations, check their classifications, and endeavour to bring them in contact with employers requiring men in any particular industry. The Departmental analysis of men will of necessity have to be fairly accurate, as, when they are issued with the "employment certificates" provided by the scheme, applicants fur employment will have received in effect the hallmark of a guarantee.

"All to the Good." "I think the scheme is a good one, and it should help to bring employer and employee into contact with each other," said one employer this morning. "There is no doubt that in certain industries there is a shortage of labour, while there is a considerable number of men unemployed. Any machinery which will facilitate the securing of work for the jobless is all to the good, and, providing the present scheme is handled as it should be handled, it is likely to meet with the approval of employers."

An employer of a. large number of skilled tradesmen expressed himself as being favourable toward the scheme, providing the element of compulsion to employ men was not introduced. ,r W e will be quite prepared to fall in with any suggestion that the Department might put before us so long as it does not try and force us to take men who are not fully competent," he said. "The employers will be only too pleased to carry on consultations with the Department which are likely to assist in getting men back into work. There must, however, be no interference with the employers, who must be allowed ,to continue to exercise their judgment as to the capabilities of the men they employ. There are a number of men on the labour market who are really in a second class and therefore not capable of earning the full award wages."

"It is a very good scheme indeed," declared the manager of a large manufacturing concern, who felt that the Departmental analysis of the available labour would assist to make known to employers inen who at present by force of circumstances were called upon to work in remote country districts and could only get to the centres on rare occasions to look for work. Many competent tradesmen, he pointed out, had been forced to take positions in the country, positions which were often outside their particular industry, and were consequently out of touch with conditions in their own trade. When men were so scattered all over the Dominion it was not easy for them to secure positions for which they were particularly suited.