LABOURERS AND THEIR PAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 281, 26 November 1937, Page 6

LABOURERS AND THEIR PAY.

(To the Editor.) Mr. Stanley, speaking before the Arbitration Court recently, stated that the conditions of the unskilled labourer were the most scandalous in the country. This is quite true, but if it is true of the labourer in or near the city, how much more so is it true of the Public Works Department labourer, who. in addition to getting less pay than local body and other industrial union workers, frequently have to travel over twenty miles each way to work. Recently it was reported that the wages of the unskilled worker would be 2/4 per"hour. Well, the Public Works Department worker simply does not get it; officially his pay is 2/ per hour for a week of 40 hours, but in fact he actually draws about £3 per week. During the winter months it is often considerably less. His pay is based on what the Government considers a standard living wage of £4 per week. Well, when we lose time through wet weather and our pay is reduced to £3 per week, we are not petting |a living wage, nor anything like it. Perhaps !the greatest hardship inflicted on the Public Works Department worker is the rule in force that the labourer must pay a year's fee of 2.1/ in advance to the union, whether he belongs to any branch of the Labourers' Union or not. •To a worker who has been out of work for perhaps a year before he gets a job, this rule k a distinct and unnecessary hardship on himself and those dependent on him. If sacked off the job the next day after paying his dues there Is no refund and no redress. Why cannot this union fee be paid monthly the same as anv other union? I agree with Mr. Stanley, that the lot. of the labourer is a scandal, and in the case of the Public Works Department labourer it goes double. 1 P.W.D.