UNEMPLOYMENT.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20788, 23 February 1933, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT.

RELIEF WORKERS' WANTS. FULL SUSTENANCE IF NO WORK AVAILABLE. A deputation representing the Unemployed Workers' Movement and the Relief Workers ? Association waited 011 Mr P. E. Climie, a member of the Unemployment Board on Tuesday to place before him the decision of a meeting of both bodies, that in the event of the local bodies being unable to absorb on relief work all eligible unemployed men, (he mens instead of receiving sustenance equal to 50 per cent, of what they would have got if employed on relief works, should receive sustenance to the full amount of what they would have received. At the meeting it was stated that at present 700 men were standing down. When the deputation reached Mr Climie'a office, Mr R. T. Bailey, officer in charge of the Labour Department in Christehurch, happened to be with Mr Climie, and Mr Bailey also heard what the deputation had to say. Mr Climie told the members of tha deputation that he could not meet them officially, but he would be pleased to have an unofficial chat with them. The deputation claimed that the onus was on the Unemployment Board to provide full sustenance to men during the two weeks they stood down. The information was given that, for a period of three weeks, £3133 of the total allocated to local bodies in and around Christehurch by the Unemployment Board had been returned to the Board owing to the local bodies having been unable to find work for all the men eligible. The deputation claimed that t.lie 70 0 men who stood down could have been employed out of , the sum mentioned, and there would have remained some of the amount to return to Wellington. The deputation desired that the Unemployment Board should review the j position with the object of paying the stand-down men sustenance equal to the full amount they would have received if employed on relief works. Mr Climie undertook to see that the representations of the deputation wore sent forward to Wellington without dela v.

NATURE OF RELIEF WORK. PROTEST MADE AT METHODIST , CONFERENCE. (PRESS ASSOCIATION ' TELe&BAJf ) AUCKLAND, February 22. "During a time of strain one hesitates to say anything to embarrass those in authority, but the protest of our sjnods last year against the meagre provision ntado for married men on relief work must be sustained and emphasised," said the Rev. A. J. Seamer, president of the Methodist Conference, when the question of uHcmploycnisnt came before the conference to-day. "We must also continue to protest against the kind of non-productive useless tasks relief workers are frequently given, although our authorities have had ample time for the adoption of a sounder policy," ho continued. "To watch some relief workers at their tasks, and to note their attitude and style, is to realise something of the effect upon character of giving a man work which he recognises is of little or no value." Resolutions expressing the views of the conference, submitted by the Public Quostions Committee, were referred back for further consideration.