LEGAL DIFFICULTY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 232, 28 June 1935, Page 12

LEGAL DIFFICULTY

Unemployment Board and Bill For Relief HOSPITAL ASSISTANCE "It is not for us to inquire why people who come to us are destitute. Either the Government should give the sustenance itself or it should reimburse us when we supply relief, without legal objections being made in this way.” said Mr. R. Holland at the Wellington Hospital Board meeting last night on the subject of relief workers who have been disciplined by the Unemployment Board. The meeting decided to set up a committee to confer with the Ministers of Health and Employment on the question of assistance to relief workers who are suspended from work! The question arose out of a letter received from the Unemployment Board. It referred to a conference held last December by members of the Hospital Boards’ Association executive and the Unemployment Board at which a fixed amount of relief was decided upon for the dependants of "disciplined” relief workers. Any expenditure was to be reimbursed to the hospital boards. The boards later confirmed the arrangement, but they subsequently refused to assist iu the matter. For a short time, however, certain of the boards, including Wellington, provided relief in a few cases referred to them by the Unemployment Board, and claims now had been forwarded to the head office for reimbursement.

Unfortunately, the letter continued, a legal difficulty had arisen that prevented the money from being refunded. Under section 20 of the Unemployment Act, 1930, the board had no authority to pay sustenance to any person or the dependants of any person who has refused or failed to accept employment. A legal opinion had been obtained and it was found that the board was unable to have -the claims passed. The, "Wellington Hospital Board’s expenditure had probably not exceeded £ll, and it was suggested that it should meet this itself. "This is in connection with men who have been stood down,” said Mi;s. 8. Snow. “I feel that for the Unemployment Board to take the attitude of allowing the legal difficulty to stand in its way after we came to the arrangement with it is most unjust. One of the men, for example, was stood doWn for a fortnight because lie left his job ten minutes early to catch a train. He would ha?e bad to wait two hours for the next one.” “I was there, and there is no doubt that at the conference an undertaking was given to reimburse us in the future,” said the chairman, Mr. F. Castle. “Now we find a legal difficulty In the way. It is rather extraordinary that this should come at the last minute. We should go to the Ministers and see where we stand.”

“It is not our job to find out about the relations of a particular (amily or person with the Unemployment Board. If they need relief we must give it to them,” said Mr. Holland..