FOR WOMEN PART-TIME WORK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 107, 7 May 1943, Page 5

FOR WOMEN PART-TIME WORK

WOMEN FOR INDUSTRY FACTORY ACCOMMODATION The Controller of Manpower, Mr. H. L. Bockett, recently made a statement that the industrial manpower division of the National Service Department was anxious to secure the service of part-time workers, and appealed for hundreds of women to come forward immediately. A correspondent writes to the Star saying that after reading the statement she, a married woman with children at school, answered the appeal and applied to various Auckland factories for such employment. On arrival at one factory, the correspondent says, she was told that the positions had been filled since early morning. She noted on her departure that other women were arriving, only to be sent away also. One manager told her that many women had called on the offchance. She wondered how it was, that in view of the general cry about shortage of labour, this great reserve of women available for part-time employment was not adequately used. When questioned on the matter to-day, the district manpower officer, Mr. C. G. S. Ellis, stated that the appeal for large numbers so far applied only to Wellington, where there were more facilities for such employment. In Auckland at present, the factories could not accommodate the large number of women who were willing to do this work. It was mainly a matter of machinery, and firms were not yet in a position to organise the use of large numbers of part-time workers. It would mean, at the moment, that too much machinery would be lying idle if it were set up for the use of part-time workers only. The time must come, he said, when this organisation would be effected and then willing part-time workers would have an opportunity of applying for work. At the moment, however, only a limited number, to fill vacancies, were required.