City Council may employ 200 more on special work

Press, 15 March 1978, Page 1

City Council may employ 200 more on special work

The Christchurch City Council might be able to increase its special work force by 200 or more under a new Government scheme.

The Town Clerk (Mr J. H. Gray) said yesterday that special work programmes — under which the council now employs about 45 unskilled labourers — had been broadened. Local Government departments and community organisations would be able to benefit from the expansion, which now allows employers to take on skilled — including professional — and semiskilled workers as well.

Work provided under the Labour Department’s Temporary Employment Programme is that which would have been done by the local body, but had to be deferred because of stat 7 shortages or low priority. All approved projects will receive a 100 per cent wages subsidy. But provision has also now been made for the payment of up to $2O per man-week labour-related overheads. Those payments would cover such things as transport, accommodation, and tools. Workers taken on under

the project are paid at regular rates, and the subsidy includes holiday pay. At the moment, projects approved by the Labour Department will be for only a three-month period. Mr Gray said he could see that being extended if unemployment stays as bad as it is now.

Council departments are being asked to take the fullest advantage of the broadened programme “not only because of its social implications, but also as it will enable the cost of the projects to be found by the taxpayer, rather than the ratepayer,” Mr Gray said.

Two projects involving professional skills are already being proposed. One would engage two young solicitors to work on city by-law revisions, and the other would engage library workers to process books being received for the new Papanui branch library. "I reckon we have an obligation to get behind it substantially,” the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr H. G. Hay) said of the expanded programme. Cr M. R. Carter said the programme was fine as far as it went, but the Government was still not taking much notice of the

problem of training young persons for the future in apprenticeship programmes. Mr Gray said the Labour Department was preparing a scheme for apprentices, but only for the private sector. It would cover persons hit by redundancies. The council’s policy and finance committee said the Government should either be asked to extend that programme to local authorities, or allow local bodies to take on apprentices under their own scheme.

“It is no wonder that these kids get unhappy when they are just dispensed with overnight,” Cr Carter said. He said that 90 per cent of Christchurch businesses did not take on apprentices in the last year. Cr Mollie Clark said there should be an emphasis on getting “a fair percentage of women” hired under the new provisions.

A special council project co-ordinator has been appointed to explain details to department heads and make administrative arrangements to deal with a large number of new workers.