DISMISSAL OF CITY EMPLOYEES

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22112, 7 June 1937, Page 14

DISMISSAL OF CITY EMPLOYEES

DEFEAT OF LOAN PROPOSAL (PEESfi ASSOCIATION TEUtORAK.) DUNEDIN. June 5. The cause of 104 employees of the i City Corporation being dismissed from - the works and water departments was directly attributed this morning by Mr J. W. Munro. MJ>., to the defeat of the £IOO,OOO loan proposal at a recent poll. "With the assistance of vicious newspaper propaganda, and misleading statements from the Ratepayers' Committee, the ratepayers deliberately voted against the loan so that the coun- . cil would not be able to assist the Government in finding work for the unemployed during the winter," he said. : "The adoption of the proposal would not only have enabled the council tc retain the,, services of the men dis- * missed, but would probablv have per- ? mitted the employment of another 1W men." The Town Clerk said that the men paid off were not strictly permanent employees, but were really additions to the staff, those engaged by the water department being subsidised workers. . The main grievance of the dismissed , men is that they have to stand down : . two weeks before being eligible for sustenance. Efforts have been made t« induce the Government to waive thi ? regulation, but this would involve a waiver throughout New Zealand, said the Minister for Defence (the Hon. F. Jones), who is at present in the city-