Suspended men’s benefit in doubt

Press, 18 February 1986, Page 15

Suspended men’s benefit in doubt

The Social Security Commission has not yet decided whether freezing workers who have been suspended because of industrial action by shift engineers will be eligible for the unemployment benefit Long-serving freezing workers may never get a benefit even if the commission does rule they are eligible for it because there is a compulsory

stand-down period of four weeks for seasonal workers who earn big money during the work season. The stand-down period for non-seasonal workers is two weeks for single persons and one week for married, but the payment is not made for a further week, when it is backdated one week. About 3000 freezing workers in Canterbury have been suspended be-

cause no work can be made available while the shift engineers are on strike. Some were suspended a week ago, while others stayed on for some of last week doing cleanup jobs. By last Friday 257 had applied for the benefit, according to Mr Alan McKenzie, the Social Welfare Department’s divisional controller, unemployment benefits. He said that the freezing workers would normally be stood down for up to four weeks, depending on their income over the last 12 months. He thought that where a freezing worker had worked only one or two weeks after being unemployed or on low wages in the last 13 weeks the department would look favourably at a shorter stand-down period, if the commission ruled that the freezing workers were eligible for the benefit.