RACECOURSE EMPLOYEES

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21961, 9 December 1936, Page 18

RACECOURSE EMPLOYEES

TO THE EDITOR OP TH* PRBSS Sir,—The reply made by the Registrar of Electors to that portion of my letter on the subject of racecourse employees is indeed a surprise, I am sure, to many readers of “The Press.” Not only was this man allowed time off to work at Addington trotting meetings, but he got it both ways by being allowed to start work at the Electoral Department at 7.30 a.m. daily and also in his dinner hour, making up his time. This year also he worked at all trotting meetings from January to May, while he was employed in the Government service. He was also allowed time off to work for a private employer in April last, and was again allowed to “make up his time” in the Government service, and was paid for two weeks’ holiday on finishing up, while there were so many clerks cut of work. This permission to work at races should not have been allowed nor for any private employer, either. Now, my point seems to have been missed. No man, when he had at least 12 months’work averaging £4 a week, should be allowed to work as a gatekeeper at races and be carried on in the employment stated. If that man, as the Registrar of Electors states, threatened to leave the job, there were plenty of competent professional clerks available to do his work.— Yours, etc., EFFICIENCY, December 4, 1936. [The registrar of electors preferred not to comment on this letter.]