ALLOWED TO LEAVE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1945, Page 6

ALLOWED TO LEAVE

GIRL MACHINIST MANUFACTURER'S PROTEST A protest against a girl being allowed to leave her employment as a machinist with Ambler and Company, Limited, was voiced by Mr. F. N. Ambler at a sitting of the Auckland Industrial Manpower Committee this morning. Miss W. McNaughton said that, on account of the domestic circumstances in the girl's home, it was thought advisable that she should go to work in the country. Consequently she was allowed to take up work at the Pukekohe dehydration works. The mother of the girl, said Mr. Ambler, had set out to defy the authorities. She had asked for the release of her daughter on the grounds that the daughter was ill, but the mother's real reason was that she wanted the girl to go somewhere where she could get more money. The girl had written to another girl on his staff stating that she was earning £4 19/ ? week and suggesting that the other girl should also leave. The girl had been trained as a machinist, yet she fead been allowed to leave to take up work of which she had no experience. "I can't see how manufacturers are going to compete if they are going to offer girls wages like that," added Mr. Ambler referring to the wages paid the girl at Pukekohe. The mother of the girl stated that she was happy that the girl was at Pukekohe. She was well looked after by the matron of the hostel there. The committee upheld the decision permitting the girl to terminate her employment.