NO CHCH DISMISSALS FOR GIRLS MARRYING

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31462, 31 August 1967, Page 12

NO CHCH DISMISSALS FOR GIRLS MARRYING

The staff officer for New Zealand for the Bank of New Zealand (Mr E. C. Templeton) ’ yesterday said that no girls in the Christchurch offices' of

the bank had been asked to leave when they mar-

He was commenting on a Press Association report from Auckland that the bank was dismissing all female employees when they- married. The report said that officials blamed the situation on the country’s economic difficulties.

Mr Templeton said the whole question was a policy matter. Girls who had already been given approval to stay on would not be affected. The bank felt that it had a responsibility to young people leaving school, to be

able to offer them employment.

He thought it was a fair policy to ask females to leave, when they married. Mr Templeton said he thought that, on a national basis, the asking of female employees to leave when they married would provide more than 20 jobs a year for school leavers.

There could be cases, however, in which the bank would agree to a girl staying on. But the extension would be only temporary. No Agreement

The secretary of the Bank Officers’ Guild (Mr D. R. Lennon) yesterday said that the bank was not breaking any agreement by asking the female staff to go when they married. “There is nothing we can do about it,” he said. “It is not disturbing married women already employed. “The policy of asking female staff to leave when they marry is, I am told, not new.

“The bank had it some time ago and allowed it to lapse when there was overfull employment. Now the bank is bringing it back.