RELIEF WORKERS' HOLIDAYS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22895, 16 December 1939, Page 12

RELIEF WORKERS' HOLIDAYS

Difficulties for Local Bodies NEED FOR SUPERVISION OF MEN The necessity for adhering to the holidays provided in the awards under which No. 13 scheme workers are employed has raised a problem for the Heathcote County Council, which employs about 200 scheme 13 men. Men who have been employed for a year are entitled to a week’s holiday as well as the statutory holidays, and those employed for a lesser time are entitled to proportionately smaller amounts of leave. The result is that, as all the men start holidays on December 22, they will be returning to work at different times, and the council will have .to provide supervision at a time when most of its foremen will be on holiday. _ The Department of Labour, in a letter received at a meeting of the council last evening, said that the duration of any suspension of Scheme 13 during the holidays was a matter for the individual employing authorities. It was possible that some authorities might decide to open their, works on all days excepting the statutory holidays, while others might wish to observe a vacation. Whatever the decision, Scheme 13 workers would be entitled to all the benefits for which they qualified .under the terms of the relevant awards or agreements which governed their employment^ “The special concessions granted in past years cannot again be made available,” the letter stated, “but refunds of subsidy will be made in the usual way in respect of paid holidays due to the workers at Christmas in terms of the particular award or agreement observed by the employing authority.” . The chairman, Mr C. Flavell, said that men entitled to a week’s holiday would be due to return on January 5, a Friday. Some might want to work for the one day, but it was probable that most would not. ~ ~ “We will have to obey the awards,” said Mr F. W. Freeman, “even if it means that we have to pay bur men for supervising the work. We certainly can’t* close down the works.” Mr Flavell: That would be a lockout. The council must not lay itself open to any penalty, said Mr Freeman. . . . The chairman mentioned that the position of men due for a week’s holiday was fairly plain, but there were others who might be due to start immediately after the New Year holidays, and might want to start. In some of the ridings, where the foremen would themselves, be on holiday, the position would be difficult. It was left to the county inspector (Mr W. W. Scarff) and the clerk (Miss J. Suckling) to interview Labour Department officials and have the situation defined.