CLOTHING FOR WORKERS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23803, 24 November 1942, Page 4

CLOTHING FOR WORKERS

♦ RATIONING SCHEME ADJUSTMENT CONCESSIONS IN SOME INDUSTRIES (P A) WELLINGTON, November 23. The Hon. D. G. Sullivan, Minister of Supply and Munitions, announced today the provisions which have been made for adjustments in the clothing rationing scheme to enable those workers engaged in industries where the wear and tear on clothing was particularly heavy to receive certain concessions to place them as far as possible on the same footing as other sections of the community. The general principle followed with industrial clothing was that the ordinary personal coupon issue was expected to cover working clothes up to a certain point, said Mr Sullivan. Beyond that point, where the use of coupons for working clothes encroached unduly on the number of coupons made available in the general coupon issue, further coupon expenditure would be covered by supplementary coupon issues or, in the case of certain industries, by the issue of permits authorising employers to supply protective clothing coupon-free. On the other hand, said the Minister, those workers who were supplied with uniforms by their employers had up to the present been receiving a considerable advantage over those who were required to surrender coupons for their working clothes, and in future they would be required to surrender coupons at the rate at which it was estimated they were saving other clothing. Mr Sullivan said the list of industries to which concessions had been granted was very carefully considered before being finalised, though it would be reviewed from time to time and any anomalies which might become evident would be rectified and amendments or additions made to the list.