INDOOR WORKLESS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 70, 24 March 1931, Page 5

INDOOR WORKLESS

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Like your correspondent "Will Work," I am also an indoor worker, but it seems to me absolutely hopeless trying to secure a position in a" clerical capacity, which is what I have been used to. Having been supplanted by the female sex I am very pleased to bo able to get employment for two days a week under the Unemployment Board's No. S Scheme, and in order to • secure ■ this, consider that the 7s 6d unemployment levy is well spent. With regard to indoor workers, which.would also include those engaged in clerical work, the Minister of Labour, in piloting the Unemployment Bill through the House, according, to Hansard, made the following statement:. "It is proposed under this Bill "to give to workers other than ex-soldiers the chance of obtaining some vocational training which may fit them to fight the battle of life. It is well known to every member of this House that amongst the" large number of unemployed in this Dominion to-day we have many men who for five, ten, fifteen, 'or twenty years have occupied positions as clerks in commercial and mercantile offices. To-day there is' no avenue for the employment of male clerks in any capacity. A large number of these men are compelled by necessity to do their utmost to undertake pick and shovel work. It is felt that under a properly-controlled system it" may be possible to take some of these men and, under the provisions of this Bill, provide a proper system of voca-; tional training which will enable them to earn a livelihood in a line of employment different from that in which they, are now engaged, because they are I not: capable of earning a living wage by the use of pick and shovel." It has to be borne in mind that this new legislation is only in its infancy^ and .when all the provisions in the Act have been carried out, I am hoping that all- indoor workers and those not physically strong enough to undertake road work will have an opportunity of ren-; dci"ing good service, in another capacity. At first I felt' the strain of pick and shovel work very much, not being used to this class of work, but now I am| getting used to it, and on the job there are two old-age pensioners who are over, seventy years old and who cannot get anything else to do to supplement their income owing to age.—l am, etc., • ' " H.W.B. ! (To the Editor.) Sj r> —"Will Work" makes a very good point in his letter, which appeared in your columns of the 19th inst., when he I states that suitable work should be found for those accustomed to. indoor .work. Many are quite unfitted for the hard I manual work now offering'for the unemployed. The unemployment levy was started to give work to all kinds of unemployed and not to one class. If the Unemployment Board cannot find work for indoor workers then it is absolutely unjust that they should be forced to pay the, levy. The Unemployment Board's sympathy is undoubtedly quite sincere, but it certainly will not pay rent or help to keep the pot boiling. As the Civil Service are complaining about a 10 per cent, reduction of salaries there is another alternative. Teach them they do not know when they are well oft".' Let each member do without two or three days' work a week, as many other workers hot' in sheltered industries have to do, and pay them only for'the days they work. During the days they are off, indoor workless could bo employed in their places. It shouldn't be difficult for skilled outside workers to pick up their jobs and handle them efficiently.—l am, etc.,