LABOUR FOR WAR INDUSTRIES

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23589, 17 March 1942, Page 4

LABOUR FOR WAR INDUSTRIES

MEN CALLED UP FOR INTERVIEWS CLASSIFICATION TO BE Made The first step toward? the drafting of Canterbury men and women into essential war industries has been taken by the National Service Department. which has issued notices to men concerned calling on them to attend at the offices of the employment division of the department for interviews. As a result of these interviews, the men .will be classified into occupational groups and may be directed into industries other than those in which they arc now employed. At present men called in ballots and found unfit for military service are being dealt with. It is believed that attention will be given next to men between the ages of 46 and 50 and women aged 20 and 21, who will shortly be called on to register for national service. The notice that has been issued calling men up for interviews states that, to meet the case of those who would lose pay if they had to attend in the day time, interviewing officers will attend in the evenings. According to the printer's number on the bottom of the.notice forms, 20,000 of them have been printed. The decisions made by departmental; officers are subject to review, on appeal, by the new industrial manpower committee. The chairman of the committee fMr K. G. Archer) commented yesterday that there would probably be a number of appeals, because in some cases men might conceivably be directed to work in which the pay would be less than that they were now receiving, Mr Archer explained that in the meantime the committee was dealing with the other side of its work, appeals against the decisions of manpower officers on employment in essential industries. Under the regulations a worker in such an industry could not leave his job and an employer could not dismiss a worker without the consent*of the district manpower officers, with the right of appeal to the committee if the officers’ decisions were not acceptable. So far the decisions of manpower officers had apparently been satisfactory, because there were no appeals against them in Christchurch and very few in other centres in the northern half of the South Island. Mr Archer said the first sittings of the committee would probably be held in Timaru and Waimate shortly.