RATION ISSUE TO WORKERS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22467, 30 July 1938, Page 21

RATION ISSUE TO WORKERS

Dissatisfaction At New Brighton

mayor said to refuse ORDERS

There is considerable dissatisfaction „ anXtog men employed by the Public Works Department on sand fixation at North Beach through the alleged refusal by the Mayor of New Brighton (Mr E. L. Smith) to issue ration orders this week. Mr D. Reed, the workers’ delegate, caid that the Mayor had definitely refused the men rations and ♦hev had only drawn £2 wages for the week There were 30 men on the work! said Mr Reed. At the start of the work, three weeks ago, they appointed him their delegate, and he had been recognised as such by the Public Works Department and the Minister for Labour. As the men would receive only £2 for the first week, less than most were x receiving on sustenance, he was deputed to interview the Mayor for ia After several interviews the Mayor granted the request and gave the men ration orders, said Mr Reed. Last week the men received £3 12s 9d and made no request for rations. This week they were back to the £2 averRequest for Rations On Tuesday evening he called on the Mayor with a request for rations, as the men were receiving only £2. Because of the indisposition of the Mayor he had to interview his representative (Mr Malone). After Mr Malone consulted the Mayor he said definitely that no man on the job would receive rations this week. “The Mayor sent a message that he would not recognise me as a delegate to represent the men,” said Mr Reed. “The men strongly resent the attitude of the Mayor, especially as the men received only £2 wages this week. The Minister has promised that they would receive £l6 a month, but to date we have received £2, £3 12s 9d, and £2 for the three weeks. The Minister’s promise has not been conveyed to the Public Works Department and the department has received no instructions, and has not any knowledge of the promise.” "Most of these men are much better off now than on sustenance,” said the ' Mayor. "Any man who can prove to me that he has less than an average of 8s a head a week after paying rent is entitled to ordinary relief. This he would get if on sustenance. The matter is being taken up with the Government by Mr R. M. Macfarlane, Mayor of Christchurch, and the Government is going into the whole question.” . Individual Orders Issued “Already to-day several of the men, individually, who have very large families, have had rations issued. The position is, as far as I am concerned, that the men have continually begged me to find work for them and because the conditions are not quite the same with the Public Works Department as they are with the New Brighton Borough Council they do not want to ; do the job.” v There were other people in New 'Brighton whose average earnings were no greater than those in the Public Works Department, said the Mayor. If a weekly ration were given to every man on £4 a week, a large warehouse would have to be opened. • As, when the work started, most of the men had been on sustenance, and i their pay would be only £2, r a ration of an average of £1 Is 8d ; a man was given, the Mayor said. Last : week they received £3 12s, and as ■ they were receiving only £2 this week he had sent a letter to every man on the sand fixation work stating that he would not be prepared to deal with the men en bloc through their delegate, but was prepared to deal with every case on its merits, and could be seen two evenings a week. “The men should have shown a little more patience until the arrival of the first big pay and from then they will be all right,” he said. • Engineer’s Statement The official view of the position of the men on sand-dune reclamation at New Brighton was outlined by the District Public Works Engineer, Mr F. Langbeia, to whom the above complaints were referred. He said that the men started work there on Saturday, July 11. On Friday, July 15, they were given an advance of £2. This was not a customary procedure, but amounted to a special concession to the men in view of their having just come off relief. Their pay was given to them fortnightly. The first pay period closed on Tuesday, July 19, and the men were paid for this on Friday, July 22, receiving £3 12s 9<J each. Another advance of £2 was made on Thursday, July 28, and provided the men worked full time they would receive the balance of their fortnight’s pay on August 5, receiving approximately £6 each. Every fortnight after that they would get their earnings, at a rate of approximately £8 a fortnight, for full time worked. Mt: Langbein said that the men were paid at a rate which worked out at 10S 8d a clay, and their net weekly wages would be £4 Os 6d. The £2 quoted by them was not their weekly earnings but the special advance made as a concession.